Opinion ID: 78254
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Marshals Service Requires Security Officers to Pass a Hearing Test Without the Help of a Hearing Aid

Text: After the bombing of the federal building in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, and in response to judicial concern with the physical capability of security officers to respond to security threats and other emergency situations, the government reviewed the security officer position. Dr. Richard Miller, then Director of Law Enforcement Medical Programs for the Office of Federal Occupational Health, conducted the study. In doing so, Dr. Miller visited five federal courthouses where he observed officers on the job, conducted focus groups with officers, and interviewed judges and Marshals Service personnel about the position. Dr. Miller reported his findings in 2000. He identified several hearing-related tasks that are essential to the security officer position: comprehending speech during face-to-face conversations, over the telephone, over the radio, and outside the range of sight; hearing sounds that require investigation; and localizing sound. He concluded that officers must be able to clearly understand directions in times of crisis[,] . . . must be able to hear communication at a level of sound that does not inform persons causing an incident of the [officers'] response plans[,] . . . [and] must be able to discern the direction of a disturbance or detect an approaching threat (sound localization). According to Dr. Miller, these skills are integral to [t]he safety of the federal judiciary, court personnel, and the public . . . . To guarantee that all security officers can adequately perform their job, Dr. Miller recommended changes to the medical standards for the position. Among the changes, he suggested that all officers (officers may wear hearing aids on the job) pass a hearing test without the help of a hearing aid  a hearing-aid ban during testing  to qualify for the position. [1] According to Dr. Miller, this hearing-aid ban would ensure that all officers can perform effectively in the event their hearing aids experience interference, become dislodged, or otherwise fail on the job. The Marshals Service implemented many of Dr. Miller's recommendations, including the hearingaid ban.