She Teaches Police Signs of Disability

While growing up, Julie A. Kearns learned how to talk to a friend during church services without bothering others, especially her father, who happened to be the minister.

“We invented a sign language we could both understand,” said the Irvine woman, who later took that skill to a higher degree as a deputy with the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

She is directing a class on “Deaf Awareness” for other officers at the Sheriff’s Academy in Garden Grove.

“I’m teaching them how to deal with deaf people they meet in their job,” said Kearns, 34. About 176,000 people in Orange County are considered to be deaf or hard of hearing.

“These people don’t need to be treated differently,” said Kearns, “but a real conflict can result if a suspect doesn’t respond to an order. That can be very stressful.”

She trains officers to recognize certain signs of deafness in people who don’t react in the same manner as a hearing person. “They have to listen to see if there are unusual voice characteristics. Their tone is usually off,” said Kearns.

She teaches officers how to ask a person in American Sign Language if they are deaf.

“I’m surprised how often I am asked to use sign language. I’m called on to help deaf inmates and deaf people who are visiting hearing inmates.”

The nine-year department veteran has worked the gang detail and most recently was assigned to sex crimes. “It’s a change of pace,” she said.

Besides using sign language in police work, Kearns teaches at a deaf and hard-of-hearing children’s ministry she started a year ago at Calvary Church in Santa Ana.

The ministry for two grade levels has expanded to five interpreters and two aides, all church members and all volunteers.

Kearns’ police career actually started in church.

“A policeman who was a church member and a friend of mine suggested it as a career for me,” said Kearns, a onetime student at Pacific Coast Baptist Bible College.

At that time the Sheriff’s Department was hiring and Kearns said she wanted something different than her clerical job.

“I was very unprepared, but I took the oral interview and physical agility test and started learning about it,” said Kearns, also a onetime Golden West College student. “I really became interested.”

She said her father wasn’t all that happy about her choice, “but he adapted to it. He was mostly worried I would change, become hardened.”

If anything, said Kearns, “I’ve become more aware and knowledgeable. I’m not as naive as I used to be.”

Earlier in life, Kearns said, she had thoughts of entering church work.

“To this day most people act kind of shocked when I’m not wearing a uniform and I tell them I’m a police officer,” she said. “I’m kind of tall and thin and not very muscular. People are pretty surprised. I guess I don’t look like a police officer.”

Added Kearns: “I’m very much into my job. I feel accomplished and I’m happy with what is happening with my life.”