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Perhaps the best way to tackle this is not to expect the officer to be trained or even remember the symptoms a PWP may display. Just carry a card taped to your drivers license explaining the situation and what to expect. Any officer that stops you will ask for you to remove your license and hand it to him. At that point I would assume he would read the attachment at take appropriate actions. Remember, PWP do drink and drive. If that is the case, you should be stopped. PWP from time to time can be driving impaired due to medications or the progress of your specific disorder. If that is the case please do not drive. If an officer finds you in that condition you should be stopped the same as a person going into diabetic shock which resembles drinking. No matter what the reason, remember Parkinson's is not a get out of jail free card. A little common sense and a note will solve the communications problem quicker than a training program. ----- Original Message ----- From: "George J. Lussier" <[log in to unmask]> To: <[log in to unmask]> Sent: Tuesday, February 05, 2002 6:31 AM Subject: Police Training and PD > Dear Colleagues, > Recently my support group ( PSG@EH- Parkinson Support Group @ Emerson > Hospital-Massachusetts )had as a guest speaker a community oriented police > officer who didn't have much to say but asked for questions. So we asked the > usual questions about Disabled Parking spots, placards autorizing parking > privilege and the like but when it came to the police officer identifying a > PWP whom he may have stopped for,say a traffic violation, then the confusion > set in. What if the PWP was sluring his words and the cop thinks the PWP is > drunk. > > There is very little on PD and the police on the internet. I did find a > great paper on police training to deal with the disabled person with Autism > and another on Alzheimers but nothing on PD. It may not be relevent because > a good cop is a good cop and the really good ones will seek out the > opportunity to improve their skills but what about the more average officer? > > I told the guest officer that I would find some documents that might > help clarify how to identify and manage some one who is unable to clearly > communicate. Any of you have any thoughts? > > Thanks > george > > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- > To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] > In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn > ---------------------------------------------------------------------- To sign-off Parkinsn send a message to: mailto:[log in to unmask] In the body of the message put: signoff parkinsn