Crime: good news and bad news
May 2025
Rite of Spring: Kids, eggs and laughter filled the lawns at Aurora’s Quincy Hill neighborhood for the annual Easter Egg Hunt.
Aurora police expand communication training
By Paula DeJohn
The Aurora police academy has resumed training for officers who encounter people with disabilities, including hearing loss, the city’s senior resource officer told Denver Chapter members at the April meeting. Aurora joins a growing number of Colorado police departments with training programs to develop skills in communicating with all members of the public—even in high-stress and violent situations.
Senior Resource Officer James Seneca explained that students have “scenario-based” exercises, where instructors, and sometimes professional actors, portray suspects, victims and witnesses who can’t hear and need accommodations. Too often in the past, failure to hear an order was treated as failure to comply, with sometimes tragic results.
As an example, the Colorado Cross Disability Coalition reported an incident in 2018 when Aurora police shot and killed a military veteran, Richard Gary Black, 73, when Black did not respond to a command to drop his gun—a gun he had just used to shoot an intruder. According to news accounts at the time, Black was either hard of hearing or just did not hear an order police shouted from outside his home.
The envelope solution
Aurora also is considering joining the recent movement to anticipate communication difficulties by issuing written documents describing disabilities. The Boulder Police Department was the first in the state to formalize the concept with its Blue Envelope program (see HAH, February 2025). Aurora will probably give the program a different name, but participants will have some form of paper document to hand an officer. “I’m sure everybody is jumping on board,” Seneca said of the interest among other cities.
Meanwhile, he noted, disabled people can do their part by avoiding provocation. During a traffic stop, for instance, avoid sudden movements. “Don’t reach under your seat,” Seneca advises. “People sometimes put guns or knives there.”
Seneca noted that he has a special understanding of what it’s like to have hearing loss; his daughter lost much of her hearing in an accident as a teenager. “She’d be lost without her hearing aids,” he said.
Denver Chapter President Marilyn Weinhouse helps Officer Jim Seneca adjust the mic at the April meeting as Ann Monson looks on.
Crime takes many forms
At the chapter meeting, he described other ways in which people could be victimized. Just being older, which many members are, makes us likely targets for scammers and fraudsters. Among the most common categories are financial fraud and identity theft. Beyond the horror stories (and many of us have some to share) are some general guidelines for prevention and defense.
According to the Department of Justice Elder Justice Initiative, five of the most common forms of financial scams aimed at older Americans are:
Online shopping: The business ad or website is fake.
Business imposters: Emails and texts appear to be from actual retailers, and ask for money or personal information.
Tech support: Scammers contact you and offer to fix computer problems that don’t exist, to get access to your computer.
Government impersonators: Posing as officials, they threaten penalties unless you pay them.
Romance: Dating prospects convince you to give them money, or offer you money to obtain your personal information.
How do these scammers contact you? By old and new media: phone, computer, radio, TV ads, email, and text.
How can you avoid or defeat them? The ways are common sense, but often overlooked. Don’t click on links you don’t recognize; even if they seem to be from legitimate sources, they may contain viruses. Hire tech support if you need it, rather than respond to offers; think of shady home repair prospectors at your door. Know that government agencies like the IRS and utilities like the electric company will never call to demand money. Don’t send or accept money based on online contacts, such as a friend or relative who claims to be suddenly stranded.
Only one of me
A person pretending to be someone else is an ancient plot device and party costume tradition. However, actual identity theft is a crime, when its goal is to steal someone’s reputation or money. In this digital age, it is easier and more subtle than ever, according to a booklet Seneca distributed at the April meeting. “While no one is safe from identity theft, there are steps you can take to lower your risks,” it begins. Simple awareness is primary: watch over your purse and wallet, and don’t let anyone see your keystrokes at the ATM or workstation. But even for the computer-savvy among us, some of the latest cyber-fraud techniques may be frightening. For example, there are now “skimming devices” that a thief can use to monitor checkout card readers and copy card information, then use it to run up a big bill online.
Many of us have heard of “phishing,” where innocent-looking emails lead to links or websites that capture personal information. But now, according to the Aurora police booklet, there are also variations called smishing and vishing. The former is phishing via text, and the latter is phishing with a voice call.
What to do
Besides closing affected accounts and credit agencies, the booklet advises filing a report with the Federal Trade Commission at reportfraud.ftc.gov. The report is distributed to local law enforcement, and is compiled with other data to assist in investigations. <>
There’s another side to crime
In April, the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing, and DeafBlind endorsed National Crime Victims’ Rights Week, April 6-12. Here’s why, according to the commission’s newsletter, The Navigator:
Deaf and hard of hearing individuals are 1.5 times more likely to experience relationship violence than their hearing peers. Women with disabilities experience higher rates, higher intensity, and longer length of domestic violence and sexual assault compared to women without disabilities. Deaf and hard of hearing victims and survivors may have different needs than hearing victims and survivors. We want to make sure the deaf, hard of hearing, and deafblind communities know their rights and have access to the services they need.
Advice from Washington: To protect rights, act locally
The national office of the Hearing Loss Association off America (HLAA) in Rockville, Maryland, has long advised various federal agencies concerning technology and accommodations for people with hearing loss, and in recent years HLAA officials have taken leadership roles in some of those agencies.
HLAA’s Director of Public Policy, Neil Snyder, serves on the Air Carrier Accessibility Advisory Board. Along with HLAA Executive Director Barbara Kelley, Snyder also serves on the Disability Advisory Committee (DAC) at the Federal Communications Commission (FCC). The Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is also in their sights, since it has authority over hearing aids—both prescription and over-the-counter—as medical devices.
HAH asked Snyder how individual members can support HLAA’s goals, and what we can expect as the rights of disabled Americans are under attack due to changes in priorities and cuts in funding at numerous agencies. In his reply he stated:
Part of the Administration's strategy is to overwhelm the public, advocates, and opponents. Further, the wildly changing policy announcements (gone today, in the courts tomorrow, ignoring the courts next week...) make it even more difficult to track. I would counsel that you and your neighbors focus on local and state level politicians, including your US senators and representatives. I would further counsel on not being overwhelmed and picking one, maybe two, issues that are THE most important to you and digging in there.
So we did!
April 5 at the Colorado State Capitol in Denver.
Commission appoints new leadership
Trish Leakey was formally appointed director of the Colorado Commission for the Deaf, Hard of Hearing and DeafBlind effective April 19. She had served as interim director since August 2024, and before that was communication access services manager. Trish holds a law degree from the University of Colorado Boulder and a master’s degree in counseling from Naropa University. She has clerked for the state Court of Appeals, Supreme Court and Attorney General’s Office.
She was also the speaker at a Denver Chapter meeting, where she told us, “I was born deaf to a deaf family. I don’t identify as having a hearing loss because I never had full hearing to begin with. I have worn hearing aids since age 3 and am bilingual in American Sign Language and English.“
Katrina (Katie) Cue, Ed.D, was named deputy director. She previously served as outreach and consultative services manager, and most recently as interim co-director. Current commissioners are: Julie Basler, Jennifer Hills, Rebecca Herr, Jordann Hoelzel, Jill Bradshaw, and Katherine Wagner.
Upcoming meetings
The next meeting will be Saturday, May 17, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Koelbel Library, 5955 South Holly St., Centennial, CO 80121. Our speaker will be Jack Carlton from Paragon Service Dogs. Before this and future meetings, members will have lunch at noon at Parry’s Pizzeria & Taphouse (across from the Koelbel Library) at 5970 Holly St. To reserve a seat, email davidmitchelle383@gmail.com.
The HOPE online meetings will continue on third Wednesdays; the next meeting will be May 21 from 5 p.m. to 6 p.m. To learn more or to receive an invitation with the Zoom link, email jen427mcbride@gmail.com.
Dues for 2025 are $20 for an individual and $30 for a couple. Please bring a check made out to HLAA Denver, or you can pay online at https://hearinglossdenver.org/ (scroll down to "Pay Annual Dues”).
Grocery fundraiser
The Denver Chapter is promoting a program by King Soopers, in which participants using a shopper’s card (the card you swipe to get a discount) can generate a contribution to the chapter with each purchase. There is no cost to you. Just log on to https://hearinglossdenver.org/community-rewards-program.
Hearing loss comment of the month
At the end of high school, I noticed some fluctuation in my hearing. One day, it unexpectedly tanked and we rushed to my Ear, Nose, and Throat office for testing. I kept passing the tests but couldn't understand the actual spoken conversation. My audiologist realized what was going on with the testing. Some hard of hearing individuals will automatically compensate for reduced hearing by filling in the blanks or anticipating words, sounds, and answers. After so many years as a hard of hearing teen, I was compensating and skewing the results of my tests. I promptly failed the next test, and immediately became a candidate for a cochlear implant.
Communications and support specialist Heather Wilcox, writing about her experience with hearing loss in the April 2025 Navigator.
