Police Policy and the Americans With Disabilities Act: Analysis of Title II Issues and An Exploratory Survey

On July 26, 1990, Congress enacted the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA). Considered by many to be the most sweeping civil rights legislation since the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the ADA applied to virtually all aspects of society, including public and private sector businesses and organizations. Public service organizations were also affected, and this included law enforcement agencies. In the ten years since the passage of the ADA, volumes of literature have been written and numerous research projects conducted concerning its impact. Unfortunately, very little of this effort dealt with the effect of the ADA on law enforcement operations. This thesis explored the available literature to discover what research, legal material, and other written sources existed. Unfortunately, very little material was available, especially in the realm of scholarly research. Legal material regarding the ADA and police operations is slowly accumulating, and will eventually serve to define the boundaries of the ADA in relation to police operations. Various literary sources provided analysis of the Act and generally offered suggestions for law enforcement agencies to assist thenAir Force Inst of Tech Wright-Patterson AFB OH is the author of 'Police Policy and the Americans With Disabilities Act: Analysis of Title II Issues and An Exploratory Survey' with ISBN 9781423551096 and ISBN 1423551095.