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Background: Several jurisdictions mandate the presence of an independent support person during police interviews with vulnerable people. The current study investigated police officers' experiences and perceptions of these volunteers during interviews with people with intellectual disability(ies) (ID)., Methods: The sample comprised 229 police officers who attended a mandatory firearms training course in Melbourne, Australia, in 2010., Results: Participants commonly reported utilizing independent support persons and displayed a fair understanding of their role. Overall, volunteers were engaged more frequently than family/friends; police considered the volunteers to be more impartial during interviews, whereas family/friends provided a greater level of emotional support to interviewees., Conclusions: Independent support persons need to demonstrate two quite different types of support to people with intellectual disability(ies) during police interviews; these require quite different skill sets and suggest the need for more tailored training and support for these volunteers. Implications for future research and policy are discussed., (© 2016 John Wiley & Sons Ltd.)

Background: This study investigated the experiences and perceptions of operational members of Victoria Police in relation to their contacts with people with intellectual disability (ID). Key interests for exploration included how frequently and in what context police reported coming into contact with people with ID, how they made this identification, and the challenges they experienced at this interface., Methods: Participants comprised 229 operational police members who attended mandatory firearms training sessions over a 2-week period in Melbourne, Australia., Results: Police reported coming into contact with people they believed to have an ID on a regular basis and for a wide variety of reasons. They were most likely to base their knowledge on job-related experiences and were most likely to identify individuals on the basis of physical and behavioural cues. The most common challenges were communication, and gaining access to assistance and co-operation from other service providers. While many considered themselves capable in their interactions with those with ID, those who identified that they were most in need of training reported lower confidence in how to respond in these encounters., Conclusions: Future training needs to focus on differentiating between mental illness and ID, techniques for enhancing identification and communication, and the inclusion of hands-on scenario-based sessions involving an interdisciplinary approach., (© 2011 The Authors. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research © 2011 Blackwell Publishing Ltd.)