When Stephen Downing's murder conviction was quashed in January, the police's frequent failure to understand disabled people was highlighted again. But things may be changing, says John Pring

When Stephen Downing was arrested and questioned about the murder of office worker Wendy Sewell in 1974, he was interrogated by police officers for eight hours.

Downing had a learning difficulty, but the officers neither cautioned him nor allowed him access to a solicitor.

During those eight hours, Downing signed a confession, which he later retracted. He was subsequently convicted, and spent 27 years in prison, but always maintained his innocence. He finally had his murder conviction quashed in January this year.

Ironically, eight days later, Mencap praised ITV police drama The Bill for its "sensitive" handling of a storyline in which officers questioned a pregnant teenager with Down's Syndrome who they feared had been raped.

Richard Kramer, Mencap's head of campaigns, applauded the show's "excellent portrayal" of how police should handle the questioning of witnesses and suspects with a learning disability.

But he also said: "Unfortunately, in reality, it is rare for people with a learning disability to be considered credible witnesses or treated with due sensitivity by the police."

So have the police improved the way they treat disabled people since 1974? Margaret Kennedy, a trainer and consultant on disability and abuse, thinks the police have always believed that disabled people do not make credible witnesses.

"I think this has permeated into the psychology of police officers," she says.

She thinks specialist training is vital, particularly in interviewing technique.

Kathryn Stone, director of Voice UK, which helps people with learning disabilities who have been victims of crime, said her charity's experience of the police has been "mixed".

Some families have found the police "very sensitive, thoughtful, helpful and supportive". Others say the police behaved in an "uncaring, unkind and unjust way". The National Schizophrenia Fellowship (NSF) runs regular training sessions for police forces, and surveys of its members consistently give the police a higher satisfaction rating than social or health workers.

Paul Corry, media manager for the NSF, said: "The overwhelming response of our members is that the police do a very difficult job in very difficult circumstances and make a success of it most of the time."

He is particularly impressed with the willingness of senior Metropolitan Police (Met) officers to work more closely with the voluntary sector and mental health professionals.

But he adds: "The difficulty with the police's work with people with mental illness is that often it is in a crisis situation and when something does go wrong the results can all too often be fatal and tragic."

Svenja Schaper, helpline manager for Respond, which provides counselling and psychotherapy for people with learning disabilities who have been sexually abused, believes that "things have changed, but very slowly".

Police officers rarely receive the right awareness training, she says, and many learning disabled people still have "a fear of not being believed".

The Royal National Institute for Deaf People (RNID) has been in discussions with the Met about improving deaf awareness, but because of the way the police are structured it has found it "very difficult" to introduce training in forces across the country.

Brian Lamb, the RNID's director of communications, said: "Frequently there is a shortage of sign language interpreters and lack of deaf awareness, resulting in confusion and serious distress."

Alec Love, former head of a Met child protection team and now a child protection consultant, believes the police have improved and are doing "the best they can".

Part of this improvement, he says, is due to the government's No Secrets guidance, published in 2000, which provided codes of practice for local authorities, the health service and the police to work together to protect vulnerable adults from abuse.

And last September, the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) produced guidelines on disability designed to help forces comply with the Disability Discrimination Act*.

They include sections on access and disability awareness and advice and information from disability charities.

Katherine Impey, equal opportunities officer for Lincolnshire police, who played a senior role in preparing the guidelines, said they were about building on progress already made.

She says: "I do not think the police have been dragging their heels. A lot of forces have been doing a lot of work."

She points to Leicestershire, Norfolk, Herefordshire, and Nottinghamshire forces, which have all devised schemes to help disabled people.

West Midlands has recently introduced a scheme which allows people with hearing impairments to send information to the police via a mobile telephone text messaging service.

The Met also seems to be taking improvement seriously. Its Diversity Directorate now treats crimes against vulnerable adults as hate crimes - alongside racism, homophobia and domestic violence - if the disability is the motive for the attack.

Detective Constable Tracey Hunt (above), who joined the directorate last year, wants to encourage more disabled people to report crimes. "Disability doesn't mean inability to say what has happened to you," she says.

Offences against people with disabilities are greatly under-reported, and she is particularly concerned about crimes against disabled people by people who provide them with domiciliary and residential care.

She is developing a training package for fellow officers and wants disabled people to contact her with both good and bad experiences of her force.

A review of progress made in incorporating the ACPO guidance is due in September.

"Nobody's perfect," says Impey, "and nobody would say they were, but I think from the work we did on the guidelines that people are making strides in all the right directions. I think it is paying dividends."

But until comprehensive disability awareness training is introduced into every force in the country, the scenario outlined in The Bill is likely to remain more often fiction than fact.