Columbia PD
From Service Dog Training
Ok, this issue wasn't resolved as quickly as I thought it had when I initially wrote this. I'm working on an update to this page to show what lengths I had to go to in order to finally get a successful resolution to this situation. In short, pursuing one denial of access took almost 1.5 years to resolve.
Denial of access by an off duty member of the Columbia, Missouri Police Department.
Below is a report of the incident, the same report I submitted to the Police Department with my complaint:
To whom it may concern, At approximately 2:00 in the morning on Saturday, October 20, 2007, I attempted to visit the International House of Pancakes at 51 Conley Road, Columbia, Missouri with a few friends. I am a disabled woman, and have severe back problems causing pain, limited range of motion in my back, and intermittent weakness in my left leg. This condition is not a visible disability and I do not use a wheelchair. However, I do use the assistance of a service dog. As we entered the restaurant, I was stopped by Columbia Police Officer T. T******, who informed me that I was not allowed to bring my service dog into the restaurant with me. I explained to Officer T****** that I was disabled and that the dog was a service dog. Officer T****** asked if I was blind. I explained that I was not, but that I had a back condition that required the use of a service dog to increase my mobility and independence. Officer T****** told me that he did not believe that I was disabled and would not allow me into the restaurant with my service dog. I informed Officer T****** of the requirements of the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) as it pertains to service animals, namely that a service animal is any animal trained to assist a person with a disability, regardless of whether that disability is visible or not. I also informed Officer T****** that the law permitted very few questions to be asked of service dog users. Those questions are the following: -Is this a service dog? -Do you have a disability? If the answers to the above questions still leave room for doubt, the only other permitted questions is to ask what tasks the service dog performs. At no time does the ADA permit any person to inquire as to the nature of the service dog user’s disability or to judge whether the user is indeed disabled. I had already gone above and beyond the requirements of the law by providing information on my medical condition that was not required by law. Officer T****** disregarded this information about the law, and told us that we must leave the building. I asked him if he would be willing to contact the Department of Justice information line for more information on this matter. He indicated that he would not be willing. I then informed Officer T****** that I would be calling additional law enforcement in an attempt to resolve this matter. Officer T****** agreed that I could call for additional law enforcement, but said that I would need to stay outside of the building while placing the call and waiting for law enforcement to arrive. Feeling that I had no other option, I left the building with my party and placed a call to the non-emergency line of Joint Communications to ask for additional assistance. Shortly thereafter, I received a call from a Sergeant who indicated that it would be a significant amount of time before an officer could respond to the call. I stated that I was willing to wait as long as necessary to have this matter resolved and asked if they could contact Officer T******* and discuss the situation with him. The Sergeant stated that since Officer T******* was not currently on duty, they had no way of contacting him, and would send another officer when they could. I waited outside the restaurant with the rest of my party for over an hour until another group of people stopped to ask why we were standing outside in the cold. I informed them of the situation and they placed a call to Joint Communications as well, where they were informed that the Sergeant I had spoken to had in fact contacted Officer T******, cleared out the call and was not sending an officer. At no time had we been informed of this change in the situation. Another request was placed for law enforcement assistance by the other caller, and Officer G. C****** responded to our location within a reasonable amount of time. Officer C****** informed us that as this was a civil matter, he was unable to do anything regarding the situation at hand and that we would need to contact the International House of Pancakes to settle this dispute. We left the premises shortly thereafter. In conclusion, since Officer T******* was in the uniform of the Columbia Police Department, he was representing to the public the views and opinions of the Columbia Police Department about the access rights of service dogs. I wish to have this matter corrected at once, and to be assured that in the future my right to public access with my service dog will not be hindered by officers of the Columbia Police Department who are uninformed of the Americans with Disabilities Act laws regarding the access rights of persons with disabilities who choose to use service dogs. For more information on the laws pertaining to this matter, please reference the highlighted sections of the attached documents, contact the Department of Justice ADA Information Line at 1-800-514-0301, or examine the following links:
- Here I attached the ADA business briefs about service dogs, as well as the Missouri Laws.
Sincerely, Tiffany Lee
The next day
I was able to meet with the officer in question's sergeant on Saturday and filed an official complaint. It seems that the sergeant had no idea what the ADA laws pertaining to service dogs were either, and said that the department does not provide/require training of this sort. He was very easy to work with though, most likely because I had highlighted copies of all the applicable federal/state laws, including the Missouri statute that makes it a class B misdemeanor to deny access to a person with a disability on the basis of that disability. A class B misdemeanor is equivalent to a first offense DUI. It bothers me that the department does not provide this training, so I am working on getting a meeting with the chief of police to discuss this issue. I think it ought to be mandatory, after all, the common threat when someone is denying me access is "I'm gonna call the cops!" If the cops aren't trained, then no one is helped. The chief's secretary should call me back in a bit when she's looked at his calendar.
I also met with the general manager at IHOP to discuss the problem with him. He was very willing to work with me, and was very informed about the laws. Interestingly enough, there was a copy of the ADA service dog laws behind the hostess desk for anyone to reference. His staff knew the laws, but they didn't feel they had the authority to stand up to a uniformed officer. By the time I got to the restaurant to speak with the general manager, he had asked the manager that was on duty during the incident about what went on and had the district manager call the cop and chew him out to insure it didn't happen again (and that they wouldn't get sued I assume). So I ended up getting free coupons for IHOP and an invitation to come back that evening at midnight when the same cop would be on duty and the general manager was present. I took them up on that and had a very nice meal with the best service I have ever had at an IHOP. The cop scowled at us, but didn't cause any trouble. On this end, I'd say things are fixed.
The next step for me is to speak with the chief of police and get some action going on that end to make good and damn sure this doesn't happen again to me or to anybody else. To start, I want a formal apology (seems reasonable to me), and for the officer in question to go to ADA/sensitivity training. Then I want to see if I can make them train everybody so we don't have a repeat performance with another officer.
A few weeks later
I got a letter from the Columbia Police Department saying they had concluded their investigation into the IHOP issue and decided that the officer did nothing inappropriate. I got in touch with the Columbia Human Rights Commission, and they were able to put some pressure on the police chief and arrange a meeting between me, the chief and the human rights investigator. I also went ahead and preemptively filled a Title II complaint with the Department of Justice. The police chief was very dodgy about meeting with us, but the human rights investigator got it done. When were were actually in the meeting, I think the chief realized they were messing with the wrong person and apologized and agreed to train all their men in conjunction with their monthly computer based training. I sent them to the Great Plains ADA Center to find out about training. It looks like this matter is resolved, although it cost me a lot of sleep and caused a lot of stress. However, I think it was worth it to push the matter because it is very important for law enforcement to understand the rights of service dog users. Don't be afraid to stand up to ignorant people, even if they seem to be in a position of authority.
