The United States Constitution guarantees all individuals the right to be treated with dignity, equality, and respect. This obviously includes individuals, like myself, who have a disability. Too often, I read about law enforcement interactions with disabled people gone terribly wrong. It’s tragic and heartbreaking for a lot of reasons, but for me, knowing that these situations can and should be avoided if only law enforcement follow the law is too much to take. I get frustrated because laws like the Americans with Disability Act (“ADA”) are supposed to protect us from discrimination and ensure us equal access to all aspects of society, including the criminal justice system.
The ADA contains important tools to establish and enforce equal treatment. Among its many important features, the ADA requires state and local governments to treat people with disabilities equally. Specifically, Title II states: “Subject to the provisions of this title, no qualified individual with a disability shall, by reason of such disability, be excluded from participation in or be denied the benefits of the services, programs, or activities of a public entity, or be subjected to discrimination by any such entity.” In other words, public entities like state and local law enforcement (e.g. the Chicago Police Department) must comply with Title II and are required to provide reasonable accommodations to people with disabilities.
Unfortunately, law enforcement officers are often unaware of or choose to ignore their obligations under various disability laws and in turn, violate the rights of disabled people. Chicago recently entered into a consent decree designed to address this concern by providing training to CPD officers on disability rights. While this training is an important step, it does not guarantee officers will comply with the law or understand disability rights. And so, the disability community must do what we have always done; speak out when our rights are violated.
In order to be strong advocates, it is critically important for us and our allies to understand that the law guarantees the right to equal treatment and participation. For example, law enforcement must provide reasonable accommodations when they arrest individuals with disabilities. When officers encounter an individual who exhibits signs of a mental health crisis, officers should attempt to de-escalate the confrontation by giving the individual some time and space. Officers dealing with deaf suspects or witnesses may need to accommodate by obtaining an ASL translator, or other methods of communication. Arrestees with physical disabilities must be transported in wheelchair accessible vehicles. The ADA’s protections continue when suspects and witnesses arrive at the station. The exception to the reasonable accommodations requirement is when providing reasonable accommodation creates an immediate safety threat to officers or the public. The appropriate accommodations for a particular situation depend on the circumstances. The most important thing a disabled person can do is to make their needs clear. If you need accommodation from law enforcement, let them know. If they fail to accommodate your disability and the accommodation would not have caused immediate danger then your rights were violated. Laws like the ADA empower us to right those wrongs. We can seek injunctions that require law enforcement to change their behavior or initiate additional training, or end certain practices. In some cases, damages are appropriate. Those of us who have had to advocate for ourselves or our disabled peers know that that fight extends beyond a moment of discrimination. In order to bring about improved treatment by law enforcement, we must make our rights clear, and use the tools available to defend them.
Very empowering post — for those with differences and others as well.
We ALL deserve to be treated equally, which may entail different approaches for different people, under the law.
Thanks so much for writing this,
JEB
Very well written.
Laws desperately needs to be changed when disabled people are incarcerated. I am a disabled person who was denied all reasonable accommodations when I was an evacuee from Hurricane Rita in 2005. I evacuated to San Angelo Texas where I was denied reasonable accommodations, medical care and household furnishings. I had my left hip replaced for the fourth time on July 10, 2005. San Angelo retaliated against me and called FEMA to report that I wasn’t an evacuee. FEMA refused to bring a charge against me because they said that I was a qualified evacuee. San Angelo then called Homeland Security with the same complaint. Homeland Security allowed the false allegations to go forward. I was charged with FEMA fraud and sent to prison. I have shortened this story a great deal. According to some attorneys and information that I have gleaned is that a person has two years to file a lawsuit. I believe that this needs to be changed to extend the time frame for filing a lawsuit until the person has been released from custody. There also needs to be changes to protect disabled inmates who are denied reasonable accommodations while in custody. I asked many many times for reasonable accommodations while in prison and was denied or punished.
To simplify the story greatly, my father (suffered TBI at age 17) was incarcerated and during his first few days in jail was body slammed into a cement floor for getting an attitude about not receiving his medication. This resulted in another concussion and multiple stitches across his eyebrow. This was not his first or only incident with law enforcement in this county. Nobody at the jail listened to our complaints or even acknowledged that any wrong had been done, other than my father getting an attitude. Knowing my father for 29 years and the results of his accident, there are times when he gets loud and animated on a topic he cares about. Not that he’s getting violent or aggressive but he simply cannot control the initial rush of emotions. This occurred in 2014 and has weighed heavy in my heart since and with everything going on now I hope this topic becomes ‘newsworthy’ as well. Unfortunately the disabled are discriminated against on a large level as well.