How Police Learn to Work with People with Autism

Other police departments took action on the issue even before these high-profile cases. In 2015, Rob Zink of the St. Paul, Minnesota police department created the Cop Autism Response Education (CARE) project. As the father of two sons with autism, Zink understands firsthand the importance of such an initiative. The CARE project is a two-pronged approach. It involves officer training on how to safely respond to calls involving people with autism, and reaching out to people with autism in the community and teaching them how to best interact with law enforcement officers. The St. Paul community is very fortunate to have someone as knowledgeable about autism as Officer Zink on board, but not every department is so lucky. That’s why it’s crucial that more departments, or even better, states, begin implementing training programs for interacting with people with autism.

References

http://www.dailycommercial.com/news/20170730/police-learning-how-to-deal-with-people-with-autism

http://www.madisonhouseautism.org/police-interaction-autism-building-positive-relationships/

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/half-people-killed-police-suffer-mental-disability-report-n538371

https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-autism/prevalence

https://www.nytimes.com/2017/09/19/opinion/police-autism-understanding.html?_r=0

https://www.autismspeaks.org/family-services/autism-safety-project/community/law-enforcement

https://www.autismspeaks.org/news/news-item/minnesota-police-officer-works-keep-people-autism-safe

https://rudermanfoundation.org/media-missing-the-story-half-of-all-recent-high-profile-police-related-killings-are-people-with-disabilities/

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/article141734404.html

http://www.miamiherald.com/news/state/florida/article176348886.html