Video transcript

DROP-IN sessions for deaf people have been set up by police who have trained officers in sign language to make their services more accessible.

The Police Link Officers for Deaf people (PLOD) will be at the Centre for the Deaf for drop-in sessions once a month to help them report crimes or discuss policing issues on a regular basis.

The initiative's launch ties in with a pilot European project using a groundbreaking telecommunications system called Reach112 which provides visual telecommunications for deaf people who wish to use sign language or text communication.

It also offers an integrated video and voice capacity for other groups who have difficulty with standard voice telephones.

Iris Sharpe, aged 81, from Kingswood has been attending the Bristol Centre for the Deaf since she was around 16 years old.

Ms Sharpe lives alone and was recently targeted by a man attempting to carry out a distraction burglary.

Fortunately she had friends staying with her who stopped the man.

She said: "A couple of weeks later I was at the centre playing bingo and I noticed all these police officers around.

"I went to talk to them and they told me they were running the new sessions and one of them agreed to see me at home and I told them all about what happened."

Through the police Ms Sharpe arranged for a carpenter to fit a security chain on her door and further locks on her doors and windows which made her feel safer.

The sessions take place every second Wednesday of the month at the Bristol Centre for the Deaf in Kings Square Bristol.