Greg,

       I was going to respond to Alfonso's request for training information
after I had made a few phone calls and checked the internet.  Since it
doesn't look like I will get around to doing either of those things, I
thought that I would e-mail the information that I do have.

       Essentially you are correct that most police agencies, at best, would
have policies to deal with physically ill without specification as to
specific condition or disease.  Most, if not all, police departments have
written policies on how to deal with mentally ill people.  These policies
tend to focus on  the law, the definition and the procedure for the
commitment of mentally ill people.  Sometimes these policies end with a
discussion of how the officer should deal with people who are physically ill,
primarily people who have appear to have diabetic, seizure, or heart
problems.  Of course, most, if not all police departments have written
polices as well on how to deal with persons who appear to be intoxicated.
These policies tend to cover the behavioral manifestations/indicators of
intoxication and how to properly administer the allowable intoxication tests
as well as the various state and local laws regarding intoxication.

       The history of these policies goes back to the mid to late 70s when a
very famous criminal law professor, Kenneth Culp Davis, wrote a book called
"Police Discretion."  His thesis was that the police exercised too much
discretion and that as a society we should control that discretion.  This
book caused a furor in policing, primarily in police procedure and police
liablity.  The International Chiefs of Police, concerned about the increasing
amounts of jury awards against police departments, jumped on the ideas of
developing policies and procedures in each police department and then
providing training in accordance with those policies.  The now-defunct Law
Enforcement Assistance Administration in the U.S. Deparment of Justice set
aside monies, lots of monies in those days,  to fund grants for local police
departments to develop policies and procedures to control police discretion.
I worked on one of those grants for 18 months; we did develop a specific
policy on how to deal with mentally ill people with a short comment on how to
recognize and how to deal with physically ill people.

       Today most police departments in the United States, particularly
larger police departments, have these type of policies and procedures, and
the training in accordance with the policies.  Getting access to this
information is almost impossible: these policies are not released under
specified exemptions in federal and state release of information laws.  And,
in my experience, the courts would not order this information released in
those criminal cases where I claimed that the officer violated departmental
policy.  Training information is also inaccessible.  Some of you have
contacted your local police departments, and you have not been able to find
this information. I would suggest that you contact your local police academy
or whatever it is that trains new police officers.  In Wisconsin police
officers are trained in the local technical schools and professors come from
UW-Extension in Madison in addition to local teachers.  There used to be a
professor at UW-Extension who taught a course on police discretion which was
called "Police Policies and Procedures," and which was required for the
associate degree in police science. I would also suggest you contact the
criminology professor, usually in the social science or sociology department,
or the criminal law professor, at the law school, at your nearest big
university.   These persons sometimes have contacts with or information about
the local law enforcement community.

       If your local support group is concerned about how the police respond
to people who have PD or who are physically ill, I would suggest that you
locate the person in your locality, or state, who is responsible for police
training and then suggest that your group participate in the training.  I
would think that you would need to do roleplaying to show your concerns about
police interaction with PWP and the need for such training as well as showing
what should/could be done in the training.  I personally haven't observed
negative interaction between physically ill people and the police;  I have
observed officers who have reacted with appropriate behavior and often with
understanding and compassion.

       Although some citizens may perceive a PWP to be intoxicated, a trained
officer, an officer who is trained to factually support his observations
regarding intoxication in court, should not make that mistake.  I have
represented thousands (?) of people who were arrested for driving while
intoxicated and I have seen thousands (?) of videos made of those persons at
the time of arrest.  None, none, of those people, who got that far in the
process, had a chronic physical illness.   Mentally ill people, who do not
meet the definition for commitment, and who are arrested and placed in jail,
are at risk for being treated inappropriately, but the physically ill people,
in my experience and observation, are quickly diverted from the criminal
justice system provided their behavior is not criminal or is not too
seriously criminal.

       If being stopped by the officer, either in a vehicle or on the street,
causes the PWP undue stress and subsequent disorientation and confusion, in
my opinion, that is more of an issue for the individual PWP.  Maybe the PWP
should not be driving.  Maybe the PWP should have an I.D. bracelet or a
companion.  Maybe the PWP should practice deep breathing or relaxation
exercises.  Or whatever.  I don't think you can teach an individual officer
to be nicer, or more sensitive or more compassionate, but you can provide
that officer with information on how to identify PD and how to factually
support any law enforcement action he/she takes.

       Of course it would not hurt your local police officers to have
information about PD and PWPs and to participate in some roleplaying and
see/feel what it is like to be on the other side.  If your support groups
still want to pursue the idea of training police officers how to deal with
PWPs,  I hope you can find the information that you need and that your local
police department is receptive to such training.  Katie

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