According to a recent article, the East Haven Police Department in Connecticut has launched a new collaboration called the Linked-Autism Safety Project to “better serve residents with autism and special needs.” The free programme helps build relationships between emergency services and the autism community. Caregivers can register residents online or in-person to provide responders with important individualised information. Registrants get an emergency planning folder with personalised instructions and all police vehicles will be equipped with sensory kits. The department aims to develop best practices, increase service quality, and foster community inclusivity. Overall, the article frames the programme as a positive new initiative greeted warmly by officials and families as a way to support the autism community through strong partnerships.
The obvious question
The police department's new programme, whilst seemingly well-intentioned, fails to truly meet the needs of autistic residents in critical emergency situations. In the moment of a sensory overload-induced meltdown or shutdown, no information packet or communication photo cards can adequately intervene and stabilise someone in profound distress.
Perhaps such resources could help officers interact better with some Level 1 autistic residents during lower-stress encounters. But for those Level 2 and 3 autistics, especially those prone to rapid escalations or self-injurious behaviour, these "helps" will be useless ephemera when most urgently required. Far more intensive psycho-education, crisis response training and on-call behavioural support specialists are needed to safely “de-escalate” those in emotional extremis.
If the police department is serious about protecting us and the officers who serve our communities, critical incident response plans must go beyond cutesy sensory trinkets and 8x10 glossies. Community advocates should demand intensive investments in continual staff immersion and live scenarios until trauma-informed practices become entrenched muscle memory throughout the department. For too long, our difficulties have been met with routine indifference, and even violence / death, from first responders. This initiative claims awareness but seems built more for optics than outcomes. I have little faith it will deliver where it matters most - in the darkest hours where skills and humanity mean life or death. Our hope for real change continues.
An “autism registry?”
Wait, what? A registry of autistic people? Umm…
You raise an exceedingly valid concern, Dr. H, that rooted in the disturbing history of disability and eugenics schemes whereby registries of disabled residents have been misused terribly across many societies. Why thank you. I would have thought that point was obvious.
I'd hope the motives behind this local police autism register are pure to enable officers to better serve and respond to residents needing support. However, there's always danger of future misapplication when a government body produces a centralised database identifying vulnerabilities of marginalised groups. Perhaps here, people could optionally self-register voluntarily without automatic opt-in, and ongoing civilian monitoring from advocacy camps could help prevent misuse over time too. Ultimately the safety of already vulnerable disabled people must stay paramount in a fair society - any programme claiming inclusion, even well-meaning ones, ought self-reflect through the lens of historical harms.
Progress relies on continually challenging the status quo and uplifting those impacted most. This illustrates the complexity in implementing real policing reforms and community relations, despite best intentions - the autism community's concerns must help steer these efforts rather than be dismissed.
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"Autism registry"? No, please. Hitler already did that with the Jews....