Regarding Training On and Enforcement of the Maryland White Cane Law
WHEREAS, the Maryland White Cane Law prohibits discrimination against blind and deafblind individuals and provides penalties for such discrimination; and
WHEREAS, specifically, this law provides that "blind, visually impaired, deaf, and hard of hearing individuals have the same right as individuals without those disabilities to the full and free use of the roads, sidewalks, public buildings, public facilities, and other public places" and that such individuals are also "entitled to full and equal rights and privileges with respect to common carriers and other public conveyances or modes of transportation, places of public accommodations, and other places to which the general public is invited"; and
WHEREAS, the law further protects users of guide dogs and other service animals, as well as trainers of such animals, from discrimination; and
WHEREAS, the Maryland White Cane Law further provides that a person who denies or interferes with admittance to or enjoyment of a public place, accommodation, or conveyance covered by the law is guilty of a misdemeanor and, upon conviction, is subject to a fine not exceeding five hundred dollars for each offense; and
WHEREAS, blind people in Maryland who experience denials of or interference with admittance to or enjoyment of public accommodations and who contact local law enforcement routinely find that responding officers are either not familiar with the Maryland White Cane Law at all or, if they have heard of it, wrongly believe that it is only a civil statute and therefore refuse to issue citations for its violation; and
WHEREAS, such refusals to enforce the Maryland White Cane Law leave many blind and deafblind people who experience discrimination without any remedy, since many lack the means to bring a civil suit to enjoin the unlawful discrimination; and
WHEREAS, while those accused of violating the Maryland White Cane Law are, of course, entitled to due process, their ultimate guilt or innocence should be determined in a court of law rather than by the sole discretion of responding law enforcement officers: Now, therefore,
BE IT RESOLVED by the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland in Convention assembled this thirteenth day of November, 2022, in the City of Towson, Maryland, that this organization demand that law enforcement agencies throughout the state commit to the rigorous enforcement of the Maryland White Cane Law when violations are credibly reported or observed; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that we call upon these agencies to collaborate with the National Federation of the Blind of Maryland to ensure that their personnel are properly trained on the rights of blind Marylanders and on what constitutes a violation of the Maryland White Cane Law; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED that a copy of this resolution be sent to the chief law enforcement officials of every jurisdiction in the state.