As a police officer, you may encounter people who talk back at you when you are trying to fine them, bursts of violence during an apprehension, or being cursed out when you give someone a warning. It is all in a day’s work for law enforcement personnel. But what if the culprit cannot help themselves? Piet Geert Nicolay, Resilience professor (applied sciences) at NHL Stenden University of Applied Sciences, is advocating a better understanding within the police corps of people with a mild intellectual disability (MID).
There are no less than three million people with a mild intellectual disability in the Netherlands. Most of them fly under the radar. “People with a mild intellectual disability are experts in hiding their impairment,” Piet Geert knows. “Our professorship is dedicated to raise society’s awareness of MID’s. The police play an important role in this, because they frequently encounter this target group. We would like to create a paper informational fan which holds all the necessary information.”
Prevent escalation
Mild intellectual disability means that the person has an IQ of around 50-70. “The social IQ is often no higher than that of a 3-year-old,” the professor adds. “This means that this group finds it difficult to express themselves, has low consequence awareness, and is susceptible to outside influence.” These three characteristics mean that MID’s have an above-average number of run-ins with the police. “This is exactly why it is important for police officers to understand how to deal with this group, to prevent escalation.”
Impossible questions
The professor mentions a neighbourhood officer who would patrol in his regular clothes, because a uniform would scare someone with this profile. “It is just a simple example, but it is how you make a difference.” The way this group is addressed can also be improved, Piet Geert finds. “Complicated questions about the nature of the offense are almost impossible to answer for them. Just as you don’t ask a three-year-old why they broke that expensive vase.”
Suitable punishments
However, Piet Geert is not advocating lowering the punishment for this specific group. “Absolutely not,” he stresses. “Everybody deserves to be punished for doing the wrong thing. But the way in which a police officer acquires their information, showing some patience and making clear that the offender will have time to tell their side of the story, means that the interaction with the police is taking a different course than is the case right now.”
Room for improvement
By using the informational fan about MID’s, the professor hopes to offer the police core more insight into this specific group. However, the project is far from completed. “There are still many organisations that do not know how to communicate with MID’s. Take city councils, tax authorities or housing corporations, for instance. When I see some of the correspondence that is being sent from these organisations, I understand that MID’s would throw in the towel. There a lot of room for improvement.”
Piet Geert Nicolay is Resilience professor (applied sciences) and lecturer at the Social Work programme. Additionally, he is a behavioural scientist at Cosis, a care organisation for people with an intellectual disability and clients with problems in the area of mental healthcare.
