About 15% of Americans are deaf or hard of hearing, so Collin County, Texas Sheriff’s deputies are making an effort to learn American Sign Language to better serve the hearing-impaired community.
The officers are attending classes taught by Deputy Sherrille Gill to learn how to interact and communicate with those who can’t hear well or at all. Last year, state legislators made the course mandatory for all law enforcement.
"We're kind of giving them that extra tool on their belt,” Gill explains, “to get through a call or incident and recognize that there's something different.”
Source: CW33