SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT BETWEEN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA AND THE CITY OF PHILADELPHIA AND THE PHILADELPHIA POLICE DEPARTMENT

ADA OBLIGATIONS AND ACTIONS TO BE TAKEN BY THE CITY AND PPD

6. Nondiscrimination.  PPD agrees not to engage in any act or practice, directly or through contracting, licensing, or other arrangements, that has the purpose or effect of unlawfully discriminating against any person with a disability in violation of the ADA.  

7. ADA Coordinator.  Effective immediately, PPD will designate at least one employee to coordinate its efforts to comply with and carry out its responsibilities under the ADA and this Agreement (ADA Coordinator for Law Enforcement).¹  The duties of the ADA Coordinator for Law Enforcement will include investigation of any complaint communicated to PPD alleging its noncompliance with, or alleging any actions that would be prohibited by, the ADA or this Agreement.  PPD will post the name, office address, email address and telephone number of the employee or employees designated pursuant to this Paragraph on its website as well as in places open to the public, as specified in Paragraph 8.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.107(a). PPD will maintain an ADA Coordinator for Law Enforcement for the term of this Agreement.  If PPD changes its ADA Coordinator for Law Enforcement, it will notify the United States in writing, and update the name and contact information anywhere it appears, within five (5) days of making such a change.

8. Notice of Rights.  Effective immediately, at all police stations and other PPD facilities at which law enforcement personnel ² are reasonably anticipated to engage with members of the public, PPD will post conspicuous signs in public areas, booking and holding areas, and on www.phila.gov and www.phillypolice.com, advising the public of the availability of appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including qualified interpreters, as follows: “To ensure effective communication with individuals who are deaf, hard of hearing, or deaf-blind, PPD will provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services, such as qualified sign language, oral, or tactile interpreters; videophones; and TTYs, free of charge.  Please ask for assistance by contacting PPD’s ADA Coordinator for Law Enforcement, [name and full contact information].”  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.163.  The posted signs will include the following: the International Symbol for Hearing Loss, the International Symbol for TTYs, and a symbol to indicate the availability of sign language interpreters:

9. Effective Communication. 

   1. Auxiliary Aids or Services.  PPD will ensure that appropriate auxiliary aids and services, including qualified interpreters, are made available to all deaf and hard of hearing individuals, where such aids and services are necessary to ensure effective communication, so that they may participate in or benefit from PPD’s law enforcement and related services, programs, or activities on an equal basis as others. 

      1. The type of aid or service provided will depend on the individual’s usual method of communication, and the nature, importance, and duration of the communication at issue.  In some circumstances, oral communication supplemented by gestures and visual aids, an exchange of written notes, use of a computer, or use of an assistive listening device may be effective.  In other circumstances, qualified sign language or oral interpreters are needed to communicate effectively with persons who are deaf or hard of hearing.  The more lengthy, complex, and important the communication, the more likely it is that a qualified interpreter will be required for effective communication with a person whose primary means of communication is sign language. 

      2. “Qualified Interpreter” means an interpreter who is on site or available via a video remote interpreting (VRI) service (as provided in 28 C.F.R. § 35.160(d) and is able to interpret effectively, accurately and impartially, both receptively and expressively, using any necessary specialized vocabulary, given the deaf or hard of hearing individual’s language skills and education.  Qualified interpreters include, for example, sign language interpreters, oral transliterators, and cued-language transliterators.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.104. 

   2. Primary Consideration.  In determining what type of auxiliary aid or service is necessary to comply with the ADA, PPD will give primary consideration to the expressed preference for a particular auxiliary aid or service by an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.160.  PPD must honor the choice of the individual with a disability unless it can demonstrate that another effective means of communication exists. 

   3. Routine Interactions.  Effective immediately, PPD will submit to the United States for its approval a proposed Communication Card for use by law enforcement personnel to communicate with persons who are deaf or hard of hearing during routine interactions.  The Communication Card will include the same types of information and methods of conveying information as the sample Communication Card provided in Attachment A. Within ten (10) days of the United States’ approval, PPD will produce and provide at least one card to each law enforcement personnel who interacts with members of the community. For purposes of this Agreement, “routine interactions” means all interactions for which no imminent threat exists. See Paragraph 12 for information about imminent threats.

   4. Communication Assessment Form.  In routine interactions, law enforcement personnel, in consultation with an individual who is or appears to be deaf or hard of hearing, will assess what auxiliary aids or services are necessary for effective communication, and the timing, duration, and frequency with which they will be provided using a Communication Assessment Form.  The assessment will take into account all relevant facts and circumstances, including the individual’s communication skills and knowledge and the nature and complexity of the communication at issue.  A Model Communication Assessment Form is attached to this Agreement as Attachment B.  Effective immediately, PPD will either use Attachment B or develop and use a form similar to Attachment B.  The information provided in the Communication Assessment Form will be input into a Premise History Report in PPD’s Computer Assisted Dispatch (CAD) system to inform officers of the needs of individuals with disabilities.

   5. Ongoing Need for Communication Assessments and Consultation.  Law enforcement personnel will reassess communication effectiveness regularly throughout any communication with an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing and will consult that individual on a continuing basis to assess what measures are required to ensure effective communication.  See 28 C.F.R. Part 35, App. A.  

   6. Use of Interpreting Service Agency or Agencies.  Effective immediately, PPD will maintain contracts with qualified oral/sign language interpreter agencies to ensure that interpreting services will be available on a priority basis, twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week or, in the alternative, make appropriate arrangements such as hiring qualified interpreters with availability twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week.

   7. Time for Interpreter Response.  Whenever a qualified interpreter is provided by PPD, the qualified interpreter will be provided at the earliest reasonable time.  In most cases during normal business hours, an interpreter should be provided within one hour of the first identification of a need.  Evening, nighttime, weekend, or holiday requests may take longer, but still must be honored within a reasonable time.

   8. Use of Other Members of the Public to Facilitate Communication. 

      1. PPD will not require an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing to bring another member of the public to interpret for him or her.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.160(c)(1).

      2. PPD will not rely on an adult accompanying an individual who is deaf or hard of hearing to interpret or facilitate communication except:

         1. In an emergency involving an imminent threat to the safety or welfare of an individual or the public where there is no interpreter available; or

         2. Where the individual who is deaf or hard of hearing specifically requests that the accompanying adult interpret or facilitate communication, the accompanying adult agrees to provide such assistance, and reliance on that adult for such assistance is appropriate under the circumstances.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.160(c)(2).

      3. PPD will not rely on a minor child to interpret or facilitate communication, except in an emergency involving an imminent threat to the safety or welfare of an individual or the public where there is no interpreter available.  See 28 C.F.R. § 35.160(c)(3).

   9. Phones.  PPD will provide working TTYs³, captioned telephones⁴ and videophones⁵ to enable people who are deaf, hard of hearing, or who have speech impairments to make telephone calls as often and with the same availability as individuals who do not use TTYs or videophones.  PPD will also train all law enforcement personnel who interact with members of the public by telephone in the Pennsylvania Relay System (PRS) in the event that its TTY or videophone is nonfunctional.  See Paragraph 14(b).  If any person who is deaf, hard of hearing, or who has a speech impairment prefers a different method of communication, PPD will make reasonable efforts to provide the communication device requested.  Signage will be displayed at all public telephone areas indicating the availability of both a TTY and a videophone and the procedure for obtaining them.  PPD will ensure that the privacy of telephone calls by arrestees or detainees using a TTY or videophone is equal to that of other arrestees’ or detainees’ telephone calls.  Where telephone calls are time-limited, PPD will adopt policies permitting a longer period of time for individuals using a TTY, videophone, or relay service due to the slower nature of these communications as compared to voice communications.  If a TTY or videophone is not available in the same location as other telephones used by arrestees or detainees, arrestees or detainees who need to use a TTY or videophone will be allocated reasonable additional time to get to and from the location of the equipment.

   10. Policies and Procedures.  Effective immediately, PPD will implement policies and procedures, approved by the United States, to carry out this Agreement.

10. Electronic Detainee Tracking System.  PPD will update its electronic detainee tracking system (and any comparable tracking systems used by law enforcement personnel, including CAD) to notify law enforcement personnel of a detainee’s disability and preferred auxiliary aids and services or necessary reasonable modifications, if known.

11. Reasonable Modification of Handcuffing Policies.  When law enforcement personnel deem it necessary to handcuff a person who is deaf or hard of hearing, they will, safety permitting, reasonably modify standard operating procedure and handcuff deaf members of the public in front to better enable the person to communicate using sign language or writing.

12. Imminent Threat.  When there is an emergency involving an imminent threat to the safety or welfare of an individual (including law enforcement personnel or members of the public), and there is insufficient time to make available appropriate auxiliary aids and services, law enforcement personnel will use whatever auxiliary aids and services are most effective under the circumstances to communicate with persons who are deaf or hard of hearing, consistent with an appropriate law enforcement response to the imminent threat.  When there is no longer an imminent threat, law enforcement personnel will follow its procedures to provide appropriate auxiliary aids and services, as set forth in Paragraph 9.

13. Grievance Procedure.  Effective immediately, PPD will re-distribute the City’s published grievance procedures to all agency heads; clarify that ADA complaints can be filed through its grievance procedures; and post the procedures on www.phila.gov, www.phillypolice.com, and in conspicuous locations in each of its public buildings.

14. Training.  Effective immediately, PPD will submit for pre-approval by the United States a proposed training program on the effective communication requirements of both the ADA and this Agreement and appropriate ways of serving people with disabilities.  For the purposes of this Agreement, training may include traditional lecture formats, roll-call training, distance training, field training, as well as methods incorporating role-playing scenarios and interactive exercises that instruct officers on how to exercise their discretion.  Training may also include testing, writing, or other methods assessing officers’ comprehension of the training.  The submission of the training program by PPD will include a description of the training, the agenda, any handouts, and the name, title, address, and curriculum vitae of the trainer.  The training will include:

    1. An overview of the range of communication disabilities affecting members of the public.

    2. An overview of the range of PPD interactions with members of the public that implicates its ADA obligations, such as responding to requests from individuals with disabilities; communication during the booking, intake, detention and arraignment processes, including telephone or videophone communication; transporting individuals with communication disabilities; and detaining individuals with communication disabilities.

    3. Information that equips law enforcement personnel to assess the need for and to secure reasonable modifications to policies, practices and procedures for individuals with disabilities. 

    4. Information about PPD’s obligation to notify City agencies, such as the municipal courts, when PPD inmates or detainees arraigned at PPD facilities have disabilities that may require either auxiliary aids or services, or reasonable modifications to City policies. 

    5. Instruction on how to use Attachments A and B.

15. Within ninety (90) days of the United States’ approval of PPD’s proposed training, PPD will provide the training to all law enforcement personnel who interact with members of the public.  PPD must train all newly hired law enforcement personnel who interact with members of the public within fifteen (15) days of the date of hire.  All law enforcement personnel must be trained at least once during the term of this Agreement.