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Signing up to help the deaf
Deaf people will find it easier to report incidents after 20 police community support officers learned sign language training.
A deaf tutor from the Royal National Institute for the Deaf spent a day teaching basic British Sign Language to PCSOs from across the north of the county at a session at Kettering Police Station.
PCSO Babs Loveday, from the Kettering North East Safer Comunity Team, said: "It was fantastic. I have always wanted to learn and this has given me the opportunity."
The PCSOs learned signsincluding 'help', 'what', 'where', 'who', 'when' and 'attack', and personal descriptions.
PCSO Christine Cotter, of Kettering North and Central Safer Community Team, said: "It was excellent. It gave you an insight into how it would feel to be deaf and the sort of barriers you might feel. I come across many different members of the community and it will help me to be more understanding.
"It will be nice if we can communicate with them and make them feel included."
Organiser Sgt Ash Tuckley, of Kettering North and Central Safer Community Team, secured funding for the workshop from a fund for enabling the police to reach out to more people.
More than 12,000 people in and around Kettering are registered with the NHS as having hearing problems. Of these, 4,000 are aged between 16 and 60 and 3,000 are over 81.
Sgt Tuckley said: "It's a lot of people.
"If someone became a victim of crime and couldn't communicate we could now sign the basics needed to help them."
Sgt Tuckley said that a lot of work was done to reach out to members of ethnic minorities and to women, but little had been done to reach out to the deaf.
At least two of the officers are planning to continue training in their own time and Sgt Tuckley will apply for more funding to train some officers to fluency.
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Sunday 27 May 2012
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