Everyone needs to understand how to behave if they are stopped by a police officer and what a police officer's role is. Ideally we look to the police for protection and safety if we are lost or need help. African Americans and people from non-white racial and ethnic groups may have anxiety and concerns about these interactions based on difficult past experiences with police officers or on events in the local or national news.
First responders may not have training to know how to interact with autistic individuals. Cultural differences and language barriers also play a role. We offer strategies and information here for preparing and coaching your teen for interacting with police and other first responders.
When your teen or young adult is the right age and stage, practice what to do if lost, and who including a police officer they could ask for help. How can they tell the person is safe or a police officer?
Take them to the police station and introduce them to the police officers in your community.
Create a simple self-disclosure card that your loved one always carries with them when they are out in the community. The card should share their disability and your contact information in case they ever wander off or if they are stopped by a police officer. This Emergency Contact Form from Able2Learn may be a useful template.
Check if your state or county offers an option to register the car your teen rides in or drives as having someone with a communication disability. In the state of Ohio you can register your car through Opportunities for Ohioans with Developmental Disabilities that will place an alert on the car. Then if a first responder stops that car it alerts the police officer/first responder that the driver has a communication disability. Here is a link with more information about the Ohio program.
What to do if stopped by a police officer or other adults:
- Understand and teach who police are. What their role is in the community.
- How do you know someone really is a police officer?
- Same rules apply for security guards, TSA agents and other officials.
- Teach about the equipment the police officer wears and that it is not safe to touch. They are bright shiny objects that our loved one may be attracted to and they can’t touch. Also why they can’t touch the police officer.
- They also have canine dogs. It's important for your loved one to understand that the canine is a working dog. It is not to be interacted with or touched unless you have permission to touch it from the police officer. In addition to respect, the dog’s reactions could build fear and anxiety in your child or adult for animals inadvertently.
- Importance of following directions. Stay calm when they meet a police officer.
- No hands in pockets.
- Importance of knowing what a law is = a rule to keep people safe. Understand what happens if you break a law. If you break a law it can be dangerous to yourself or others. For example a crosswalk - if you walk on the do not walk sign you can get hit by a car.
- 3 Don'ts: You don’t run, don’t fight and don’t argue.
- 3 Do’s: Stay calm when police approach or talk with you, stay where you are and do exactly what the police tells you to
- As they start to get older, 12 years old and up, coach them on how they can self disclose that they are autistic. You may want to have them wear a medical alert tag or jewelry, or as we suggest above have a self-disclosure card.
- Teach them to ask for an accommodation, such as could you please talk slowly? Could you give me one instruction at a time?
- If your teen or adult is driving, consider having them keep a self-disclosure card in their wallet they could give a police officer. Help them plan the way that they will disclose their developmental disability.
- If English is not your or your teen or adult's first language, consider having them keep a self-disclosure card in their wallet that includes that English is their second language, which language they speak fluently and how to ask for a translator in that language.
- Teens need to have a state ID starting at a certain age, often at 12. Check with your local Department of Motor Vehicles to find out the rules in your state and how to get a state ID.
