Taylor

It still becomes a safety issue. What if you and your partner get seperated? How would you hear his call for help on the radio or other officers? How would you know where those shots were coming from?

The reason I mention this is a few years ago, we had a gunman that barricaded himself in an apartment building. Officers arrived in the area and immediately began taking on fire from him. Officers needed to take cover immediately...and officers were sometimes out of site of each other (one behind a dumpster, another in a stairwell). This shootout lasted for about 1/2 of an hour. Fortunately, no officers were injured and the gunmen killed himself in the stairwell of the apartment building.

It is unlikely that this would ever happen again, but you need to be prepared for it. Just like traffic stops...many officers go through entire careers without having major issues on traffic stops, but you need to be prepared for that one time when somebody starts shooting with no warning. You take cover one way and your partner takes cover at another spot.

There is no reason to be discouraged however, because there are MANY positions within a department where somebody who is deaf could do quite well.