[nfbwatlk] Maybe there is hope here in the U.S for future employment opportunities

[Wanda Carruth Johnson]

Belgium's Blind Crime Fighters


Special Police Unit Is One of Force's Most Effective Weapons
Against Crime


By BEN BARNIER


LONDON, Nov. 16, 2007 - 

Sacha Van Loo isn't allowed to carry a gun, but he is one of
Belgium's finest weapons against drug-related criminality. 

Van Loo, 36, has been blind since birth, and because of the acute
sense of hearing he developed to overcome his disability, he was
chosen among dozens of applicants to be the ears of the Belgian
federal police. 

Police recruited six blind men, including Van Loo, after
observing early experiments in neighboring Netherlands. 

Their mission is to transcribe and analyze wiretap recordings and
real-time telephone conversations. They investigate some of the
country's most critical issues including drug trafficking and
prostitution. 

The transcriptions are used as evidence for criminal
investigations and Van Loo's highly trained ears have proven to
be a valuable asset. 

"They can hear things that you and I cannot," Paul Van Thielen,
director general of the Judicial Federal Police, told ABC News.
"They are particularly effective analysing background noises. For
instance, they can tell whether a conversation has taken place in
an airport or a train station." 

"I have been trained in echo location," Van Loo told ABC News. "I
can hear the way a sound bounces off a wall or another object. I
use this ability in everyday life. I just kept on doing it for my
work." 

Besides recognizing background noises and echoes, Van Loo is also
an outstanding linguist. 

Raised in a family in which he spoke several languages, Van Loo
today speaks Flemish, Russian, Serbian, Ukrainian, Spanish,
Portuguese, English, Hungarian, Romanian, Farsi, and is learning
Arabic. 

Van Loo can also precisely identify accents and dialects. 

Despite his outstanding talents, Van Loo tries to keep a low
profile. Call him a hero, and he shrugs it off. 

"When I hear people saying I am the blind Sherlock Holmes," said
Van Loo, "it makes me laugh." 

"All we do is an administrative job," he said. 

Van Loo even thinks that his unusual ability to recognize accents
or background noises is not a gift, but just a matter of
training. 

"Anyone can develop those talents. The difference is that I did
not have the choice to do it, I was forced to develop them to
survive." 

When you can't see, said Van Loo, you must be able to know
whether there is a wall in front of you  just by the click of
your stick on the ground. 

At school and at home, Van Loo developed the skills and the
mindset that helped him become the highly skilled professional he
is today. 

"My parents helped me overcome my handicap by accepting it," said
Van Loo. "Many blind people have problems with their handicap
because [they] did not talk about it." 

"My parents," said Van Loo, "were realistic. They told me, 'OK,
you are blind. There are some limitations, but it is still
possible for you to explore new territories." 

Had Van Loo always wanted to be a cop? Well, almost. 

"One of my first dreams," said Van Loo, "was to be a pilot, but
of course people convinced me quickly that this would not be
possible. Then it became clear that I wanted to be an
interpreter. I have always wanted to work with languages and I
wanted to work with the police." 

Van Loo started working in law enforcement as an interpreter,
which made him an obvious candidate for the new police unit that
was set up in June. 

"I really felt like I was part of the team from the first moment
I came here," said Van Loo. "We were not these blind handicapped
people for whom they had to find a place. They really accepted us
for what we were, for our abilities and our work." 

This smooth integration was the result of two years of hard work
and preparation. 

"It is not easy at first to accept the idea that a blind man can
work as a policeman," said Van Thielen, director general of the
Belgian Judicial Federal Police. 

The police officers who are now working with Van Loo were coached
by the Ligue Braille, an institute specialized in training blind
people and creating blind-friendly work environments. 

"We had to put people at ease," said Cindy Gribomont, a trainer
with the Ligue Braille. "Many of the policemen were embarrassed
to use the verb 'see' in front of blind people." 

"We learned that it's not a problem at all to say see you later
to a blind man," said Van Thielen. 

The Ligue also had to customize law enforcement equipment for the
new visually impaired officers. 

"Computers are the same," said Gribomont, "but they don't use
their mouse or their screen. They have a special Braille, bar
which allows them to read what's on the screen." 

They also use speaker phones to "read" their screen and a special
device that prints out the characters in Braille. 

Six months after the blind unit was set up, Van Thielen is very
satisfied with initial results. 

The blind police officers are "courageous and positive," said
Thielen, "and they do a job that no one else could do as well as
them. There is no doubt that we will keep on working with them." 

"The question now," said Thielen, "is whether we can hire
others." 

It's a cause that is close to Van Loo's heart. 

"In Belgium, it's very difficult for blind people to find a job,"
said Van Loo. "Not every single blind person should work for the
police, but there are jobs in which blind people could be very
useful." 

"I know very gifted blind people, who are very good with
computers and should normally find a job immediately, but
employers are afraid to hire them."

Copyright C 2009 ABC News