We will be using the Visual Impairment Protocol if you live with sight loss and a police officer needs to call to your home for any reason.
We recognise there are groups in our society that may feel vulnerable and part of our Policing Plan is making the service more accessible. There are unfortunately, those who target vulnerable people at home for burglary or other offences and occasions individuals pretend to be Police Officers in doing so. The Protocol aims to assist in tackling this.
We have been working with The Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB), to assist in implementing the Protocol to protect and provide reassurance to those who have sight loss or any vulnerability. Our intention is to provide reassurance on the occasions we may call at an address for a legitimate reason by informing the person at home that we are in fact who we say we are.
This is a two pronged approach with two options:
Option 1 is, whenever a Member of the public (whom has sight loss or vulnerability) requests attendance from PSNI via 999, 101 or online.
1. First, you give a password to the PSNI Call taker
2. The Attending Officer then repeats that password to you at the door
3. You then know for sure that it is a PSNI officer and you allow access to property
Option 2 comes into play if we need to call to your home unexpectedly
1. The Attending Officer has to give you either:-
A) log number and purpose for the visit to you at the door or
B) the Call sign details and their Police identification number
2. The Attending Officer advises you to contact 101 for confirmation. Remember to close and lock your doors while checks are being conducted.
3. You call the Contact Centre on 101 to verify details initially provided by the Attending Officer.
**If for some reason this does not work the member of the public can always revert to Option 1 and gain reassurance that way.