Regina police officers get new card to bridge communication gap

More than four years ago, Mustafa Alabssi — who is deaf — had a misunderstanding with police that led to him being concerned about how the interaction could have taken a turn for the worse.

Now, a new tool is being added for officers with the Regina Police Service when it comes to communicating with drivers.

The RPS has introduced a new communication card for people who are deaf or hard of hearing or for whom English isn’t their preferred language. The card features various symbols and words to help communicate what the intent of the stop is.

“I’m so proud,” Alabssi said Tuesday with the help of his sign language interpreter, Shayna Hoggard. “This is the first time in Saskatchewan the cops would have this on them.

“It was a lot of work and to have this be required, it’s a win in the sense I would have access (to this card) but a loss that I will have to pay for a ticket.”

In 2019, Alabssi was a student at Winston Knoll Collegiate when he was parked waiting for his girlfriend. As he was waiting, he noticed a kid playing alone and was going to give the boy a candy bar that Alabssi had in his vehicle.

The kid ran off and then shortly after, police came up behind Alabssi’s car with others also appearing. Alabssi tried to communicate to the officer that he was deaf, but there was a miscommunication and, with English not being Alabssi’s first language, there was a lot of stress in the situation until his girlfriend came out and explained things.

Police agreed there was a misunderstanding and let him go, but Alabssi had concerns over how it could have gone. He went to his teacher and the two approached their school resource officer – Const. Erin Black – and work began on getting the card set up.

“When I heard this had happened, it’s upsetting to have that kind of personalized experience brought to me,” Black said. “What are other communities doing that is working and is successful and has good feedback?

“When given the opportunity to approach management, there are so many open doors in our building to just go up and say, ‘Hey, here’s an idea and is this something we can run with?’ ”

Nairn Gillies, the executive director for Saskatchewan Deaf and Hard of Hearing Services, said this is a concern all over the world for people who are deaf or hard of hearing.

“Their experience is very unique,” Gillies said. “We started this about eight or nine years ago with the human rights commission and some of the people who are involved in the justice ministry talking about this and training for police officers because they have to know that not everybody can hear when they walk up.

“Coming up with a solution like this, a practical hands-on way by the grassroots people, is really the right way to do it.”

Every officer will have one of the communication cards on them and they can also be picked up from the RPS building.