When Carole Kaulitz asked a roomful of law enforcement officers if they had ever had a personal experience with someone with autism, nobody raised their hand.
Kaulitz, a speech language pathologist, was among three local experts who recently taught Clark County sheriff’s deputies ways to handle interactions with those who are autistic.
“These folks are vulnerable, very misunderstood. Keeping them safe is an ongoing challenge,” Kaulitz said.
The training was the first of its kind for the sheriff’s office and may serve as a springboard for similar emergency responder trainings around the state. More Clark County deputies will get the training later this month.
It’s difficult to cram specialized training like this into the four days allotted for training each year, said training Sgt. Tim Bieber. The two-hour autism segment was squeezed in before a refresher on Tasers. Meshing the world of autism with the world of law enforcement, and finding strategies that work, is the biggest challenge, Bieber said.
“The key for us is always de-escalation,” he said.
Jeffrey Foster, a family therapist, recalled how in 2013 a 13-year-old boy at Chief Umtuch Middle School in Battle Ground made threats to bomb the school and kill the students and staff on Sept. 11. Foster evaluated the boy, who has autism, and learned that he was upset that an aide was with him during his classes.
“He had no language, no ability to say that,” Foster said.
Statistics suggest that people with autism are seven times more likely to have contact with law enforcement than everybody else. Most of the time, there’s no criminal activity.
Difficulty communicating is the big issue when it comes to dealing with someone who has autism, the officers learned. It may take a while for someone with autism answer a simple question like “what’s your name?” That is, if they answer at all. Answering “no” to all questions is another possibility. They may be “deceptively expressive” and seem to communicate well, but don’t actually have a full understanding of what they’re saying and how it impacts others. A person with autism could cover their eyes, look away or run away when approached by a police officer. They might repeat what the officer is saying or recite lines from a movie.
Police officers can look for odd speech, odd body movements or an inability to make normal eye contact, Foster said. The odd behavior itself may be what spurs a law enforcement response if, say, someone likes to lie in the middle of the road or talk to themselves. To an unknowing law enforcement officer, someone with autism may appear psychotic or intoxicated.
Autism is a lifelong neurological disorder, not a mental disorder, so people with autism can’t be lumped with people who have mental health issues and might exhibit similar behaviors. Those with autism may, however, struggle with anxiety or anger management.
Information from family or caregivers can clue officers in to what they’re dealing with and the best way to communicate. Lights and sirens, for instance, are often too stressful.
By learning to recognize the characteristics of autism, law enforcement can thoughtfully address these people without overstimulating them, staving off a meltdown, Kaulitz said.
“We want to keep people out of the (criminal justice) system as much as we can,” she said.
One ongoing question that officials and policymakers are still trying to answer is what to do if someone with autism commits a crime. Is it their fault if they think in a different way and don’t believe that what they did was wrong?
Kaulitz showed a video of a man with autism taking snacks and drinks off the shelves at a convenience store and eating as he walked around. When the police arrive, he says, “These chips are mine.” He was under the impression that anything he sees is his.
“For our rules, he did break the law, but for his rules, he didn’t,” said Neatha Lefevre, an occupational therapist.
She said that how emergency responders deal with someone who has autism is an emerging field. Bieber approached her to set up the training for the sheriff’s office. Lefevre hopes the local lesson and discussions can be reworked and used at agencies across the state.
