As part of their monthly training update, all RGP officers have been learning how to be more aware of the problems faced by people who are deaf or who are hard of hearing.

In order to involve police officers from the various shift patterns, there have been four of these training sessions, each one led by DC Paul Gache who is an experienced Sign Language practitioner and is qualified at British Sign Language Level 2.  Paul Gache first took a personal interest in Sign Language when he was studying in London for his Social Work degree.

In addition, a second RGP officer, PC Zoe Fidock, has a British Sign Language qualification.

Also involved in the RGP presentations are Edgar Triay of the Gibraltar Hearing Issues and Tinnitus Association, Jackie and Phillip Jarman (who are both profoundly deaf) and Gill Earl a highly experienced signer from UK.

‘We only have a handful of deaf people living here in Gibraltar,’ said Paul. ‘But it is essential for our officers to know how to communicate with someone who is hard of hearing as, in a normal year, we have many thousands of visitors and we cannot assume that all of them have excellent hearing. We need to be aware that some people’s hearing is less than perfect and we need to know how best to communicate with such people.’

During the training session, police officers learned the importance of non-verbal means of communication as well as practising some of the basics of the Finger Spelling Alphabet.

Edgar Triay expressed his satisfaction that, for the first time, the RGP was bridging the gap to Gibraltar’s deaf community.