Spreading the word

Constable Debi Leahy, who recently won Deaf Aotearoa's Public Service Award, has now turned her attention to helping others in the emergency services learn New Zealand Sign Language (NZSL).

“NZSL is an official language of New Zealand, so I thought it was important for Police to become a Deaf-friendly organisation,” she says.

“By teaching sign language to officers we can aid this process, while improving communication between the Deaf community and emergency services.”

With the support of Waitakere Area Commander, Inspector Gary Davey, Debi set up an eight-week night class at Henderson Station, which was offered to police and fire staff in West Auckland.

Night class participants, back row: Senior Constable Theresa McCabe; Constables Nga Paratainga and Debi Leahy; Sergeant Georgina Were. Middle row: Fire Fighters Kenton Rusbridge and Tom Hopkins; Constable Murray Farrell. Front row: Senior Constable Karen Murphy; NZSL teacher Victoria Skorikova; Fire Fighters Maxine Arden and Louisa Ferguson. Photo: Detective Sergeant Eugene Pickett

Constables Josh Ballantyne and Nga Paratainga from Auckland Central had dropped into the Communications Centre when they saw a poster advertising the course starting that night.

“We were really keen to do the course, purely because we’ve been dealing with more and more Deaf people and it’s so difficult to communicate the basics,” says Josh. “We’d have to write down things like ‘You’re being arrested.’

“Funnily enough the very next job we had was an assault and the guy we arrested was Deaf.”

Josh says the course was very worthwhile. “It was brilliant.

The minute we walked through the door there was no talking – we had to communicate through signing only.”

“Feedback was really positive,” Debi says. “At the end of the course everyone was keen to learn more, so we will be running an intermediate level class.”