Speaker 1: Welcome to Why Not Me the World? Podcast hosted by
Speaker 1: Tony Mantor, broadcasting from Music City, USA, Nashville, Tennessee. Join
Speaker 1: us as our guests tell us their stories. Some will
Speaker 1: make you laugh, some will make you cry. Real life
Speaker 1: people who will inspire and show that you are not
Speaker 1: alone in this world. Hopefully you gain more awareness, acceptance,
Speaker 1: and a better understanding for autism around the world. Hi,
Speaker 1: I'm Tony Mantor. Welcome to Why Not Me the World?
Speaker 1: Humanity over Handcuffs the Silent Crisis special event. Joining us
Speaker 1: to is Bart Barter. He is a retired law enforcement
Speaker 1: commander with over thirty one years of experience. He joins
Speaker 1: us today to discuss his company, Autism Safety one oh one,
Speaker 1: whose mission is to provide first responders with the necessary
Speaker 1: tools and tactics to achieve optimal outcomes when interacting with
Speaker 1: individuals on the autism spectrum. He possesses a wealth of
Speaker 1: knowledge and we are just so delighted to have him
Speaker 1: on the show. Thanks for coming on.
Speaker 2: It's a pleasure. Thank you for having me.
Speaker 1: Oh, it's my pleasure if you would tell us what
Speaker 1: you do now.
Speaker 2: I'm a retired law enforcement commander. I had a thirty
Speaker 2: one year law enforcement career. Eighteen years ago, my world,
Speaker 2: the world of my family was forever changed. My wife
Speaker 2: and I have three sons, all adults. Our youngest adult,
Speaker 2: Sign was diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder when he was
Speaker 2: three years old. He went in for his three year
Speaker 2: pediacor checkup. That's when the pediatrician diagnosed him, and then
Speaker 2: we later followed up with a to the pediatric neurologists
Speaker 2: to confirmed the pediatricians diagnosis. Not knowing anything about autism
Speaker 2: at all, it set myself and my wife on this
Speaker 2: journey to try to learn as much as we possibly could.
Speaker 2: We wanted to give our son the greatest opportunity at
Speaker 2: reaching his fullest potential in life, whatever that might be.
Speaker 2: We didn't know at the time would he even be
Speaker 2: able to communicate with us. He was verbal, only spoke
Speaker 2: a few words. He engaged in a lot of echoalia
Speaker 2: things like that, So to say we were scared would
Speaker 2: be like an understatement. We realized that we were really
Speaker 2: going to have to pour ourselves into him and try
Speaker 2: to help him reach his full potential. While all of
Speaker 2: this is going on, I'm working as a police officer
Speaker 2: and for management role was a lieutenant at the time
Speaker 2: at the police department in South Florida where we were living,
Speaker 2: and I quickly realized that law enforcement was not training
Speaker 2: its officers in how to recognize and respond to individuals
Speaker 2: on the autism spectrum. I kept seeing stories in the
Speaker 2: news involving encounters between law enforcement and individuals on the
Speaker 2: autism spectrum, and they weren't favorable stories. I really felt
Speaker 2: like we could do better in this area. So I
Speaker 2: was working for the Coral Gables Police Department at the time,
Speaker 2: which is a bedroom community of Miami. In the city
Speaker 2: of Coral Gables is the University of Miami, and they
Speaker 2: have something there called the Centers for Autism and Related Disabilities.
Speaker 2: So I reached out to them. I see this real
Speaker 2: need here in developing some curriculum for law enforcement. Can
Speaker 2: you help me. I'm not an expert in autism, but
Speaker 2: I needed to go to the experts in autism so
Speaker 2: that we could create some evidence based training for law
Speaker 2: enforcement officers to help them better recognize respond to individuals
Speaker 2: with autism, so that at the end of the day,
Speaker 2: the individuals with autism is kept safe as possible and
Speaker 2: the officers remained safe.
Speaker 1: If possible. So what happened out of that meeting.
Speaker 2: They agreed to help me and assist me on this
Speaker 2: and set me on this journey. While still working full
Speaker 2: time for the police department, I started working with something
Speaker 2: called the Crisis Intervention Team Training Program or C program.
Speaker 2: It was a program that came about to aid law
Speaker 2: enforcement officers and how to better recognize and respond to
Speaker 2: individuals who might have mental illness. I started working with
Speaker 2: this program in Miami Dade County probably eighteen years now,
Speaker 2: started working with this program and started training South Florida
Speaker 2: law enforcement officers, primarily Miami Dade County. I would come
Speaker 2: into this forty hour block of C instruction and I
Speaker 2: would do about a two two and a half hour
Speaker 2: block on autism. And I did this, I don't know,
Speaker 2: for probably for more than ten years. After doing that,
Speaker 2: as I was getting closer to retirement and I was
Speaker 2: still doing this training, but because of my full time
Speaker 2: responsibilities as a law enforce of commander, couldn't really pour
Speaker 2: myself in full time into doing this kind of training. So,
Speaker 2: as I could see I was getting closer and closer
Speaker 2: to retirement, my wife and I had this discussion. We
Speaker 2: decided together to try to launch a training business, training
Speaker 2: consulting business so that we could work with first responders
Speaker 2: to help them better recognize and respond to individuals with autism.
Speaker 2: That's what I've been doing ever since.
Speaker 1: Sounds like a great idea. What happened next for you?
Speaker 2: So I retired in the end of twenty seventeen. Before retiring,
Speaker 2: I had launched Autism Safety one oh one. I travel
Speaker 2: all across the United States of America, providing training primarily
Speaker 2: to law enforcement, but I also trained firefighters, EMS, I've
Speaker 2: trained correctional personnel, security personnel, and I really feel that
Speaker 2: it's crucial all first responders received this training, and so
Speaker 2: that's where I got started.
Speaker 1: When you have a class, what does your audience look like?
Speaker 1: Is it police, firefighters, EMTs, operators from the nine to
Speaker 1: one to one com centers or do you talk with
Speaker 1: each one of them individually as a group.
Speaker 2: Generally, the class is specific to the audience. So if
Speaker 2: it's primarily a law enforcement, say it's a police department.
Speaker 2: I was just recently contacted by a police department in Georgia,
Speaker 2: just outside of Atlanta. Shamily, Georgia chief of police contacted
Speaker 2: me and asked me if I could do a couple
Speaker 2: of eight hour trainings there for his officers and the
Speaker 2: local law enforcement partners in that area. We've scheduled two
Speaker 2: dates in April and I will go up there and
Speaker 2: that class will just encompass primarily law enforcement officers. I
Speaker 2: do trainings right now. In fact, I have some fire
Speaker 2: rescue in South Florida. They have me come in twice
Speaker 2: a month to provide autism training to their firefighters, and
Speaker 2: that is just specific to firefighting. There is some overlap.
Speaker 2: There is times occasionally, and it doesn't happen very often,
Speaker 2: maybe less than five percent of my trainings include a
Speaker 2: mixed first responder audience, meaning there'll be police in the
Speaker 2: audience and there'll be firefighters in the audience. That doesn't
Speaker 2: happen very often. Normally it's centric to whatever audience is.
Speaker 2: So I have a training for school resource officers. People
Speaker 2: may not realize this, but policing in schools is a
Speaker 2: lot different than policing on the street. So I come
Speaker 2: in and I have a background in that as well.
Speaker 2: When I was a sergeant earlier in my career, I
Speaker 2: used to oversee and supervise school resource officers. I have
Speaker 2: a training specific to them. And we talk about students
Speaker 2: with autism in the schools and things like that. Training
Speaker 2: that I do is tailor specifically to whatever first responder
Speaker 2: audience I'm dealing with.
Speaker 1: What's the first thing that you tell them to start
Speaker 1: your class off. They are sometimes going into the unknown.
Speaker 1: They don't know whether it's autism or another mental health issue.
Speaker 1: It could be ADHD, bipolars, gizophrenia, or anything else mental
Speaker 1: health related with the police, sometimes they only have seconds
Speaker 1: to make a determination. So how do you tell them
Speaker 1: to approach it so the situation does not get out
Speaker 1: of control, so it can be handled in a very
Speaker 1: good way where everybody walks away knowing that they did
Speaker 1: their very best to ultimately have a satisfying conclusion.
Speaker 2: It's a great question. So here's the thing, right, this
Speaker 2: is really important. I have to start off with helping
Speaker 2: these officers understand what autism is. If you don't understand
Speaker 2: the challenges and the needs of people with autism, you're
Speaker 2: not going to recognize it. And unfortunately, this is what
Speaker 2: happens in some cases too often, where law enforcement officers
Speaker 2: do not receive meaningful training in autism, officers will oftentimes
Speaker 2: misinterpret the person's behavior or their lack of communication, and
Speaker 2: they'll take one course of action, where if they had
Speaker 2: some understanding about autism, then they might take a different
Speaker 2: course of action. I have to break it down into
Speaker 2: its simplest part so that these officers truly understand what
Speaker 2: it's like to be in the body of a person
Speaker 2: with autism and understand all those unique challenges that come
Speaker 2: along with that disability. Part of that is helping them
Speaker 2: to understand when and where we can to try to
Speaker 2: slow things down as much as we possibly can. We
Speaker 2: have to be patient. We have to give them time
Speaker 2: to process what it is that we're asking them or
Speaker 2: telling them to do. If we expect them to immediately
Speaker 2: respond or comply with our questions, our request, in many cases,
Speaker 2: it's not going to happen. It's imperative that law enforce
Speaker 2: since officers understand these challenges. Once they understand the challenges
Speaker 2: that follow this disability, then we implement the strategies and
Speaker 2: how to de escalate possible rice's situations or meltdowns that
Speaker 2: might be occurring. So it's not like there's a silver
Speaker 2: bullet here and you can come in and go, Okay,
Speaker 2: do this every time, and then everything is wonderful, and
Speaker 2: it's great because it is a wide spectrum and it
Speaker 2: affects people differently. It's been said once. I think it
Speaker 2: was doctor Stephen Shore that came out with this saying
Speaker 2: he said, if you've met one person with autism, you've
Speaker 2: met one person with autism. Right, No, two people with
Speaker 2: autism are identical. And that's important too, because law enforcement officers,
Speaker 2: we are trained to recognize pattern We are great at
Speaker 2: recognizing patterns. If you've seen something enough times, go oh,
Speaker 2: I know what this is. It's a little bit more
Speaker 2: challenging when you're dealing with somebody with autism, who might
Speaker 2: have serious communication challenges, who struggle socially, who might even
Speaker 2: have an intellectual disability on top of that, coupled with
Speaker 2: pull occurring mental health dishorders and other things. So let
Speaker 2: me say this to you. And this is one thing
Speaker 2: I hope your listeners take away if they're looking to
Speaker 2: help law enforcement officers and their communities receive this kind
Speaker 2: of training, is you can't do this online in a
Speaker 2: half an hour or an hour, you can't do it.
Speaker 2: I tell chiefs of police, they'll contact me from time
Speaker 2: to time and they'll say bart and you come train
Speaker 2: the troops. And I'll say, sure thing, Chief, what do
Speaker 2: you have in mind? And they'll say, well, what about
Speaker 2: roll calls? Now, roll calls are like briefings that occur
Speaker 2: at the very beginning of the shift. Used to see
Speaker 2: it like if you watch shows like Hill Street Blues.
Speaker 2: The sergeant would come in, he would address the officers
Speaker 2: and things and give them kind of the instructions for
Speaker 2: the day. Those are role calls, right. Generally roll calls
Speaker 2: don't last more than fifteen minutes to a half an hour.
Speaker 2: So I asked the chief what do you have in mind?
Speaker 2: And they'll say, what about a roll call? And I'll
Speaker 2: say how long do your roll calls last? And they'll say,
Speaker 2: we can do forty five minutes. And then I stop
Speaker 2: them right then and there, and I tell them, Chief,
Speaker 2: all due respect, I can come in, I can talk
Speaker 2: to your officers for forty five minutes about individuals with autism.
Speaker 2: But they're not going to get much out of it.
Speaker 2: And they scratch their heads and they look puzzled. Right,
Speaker 2: because I can't understand this, right, tell them, don't do
Speaker 2: anything less than four hours. I hate doing four hour
Speaker 2: trainings because when I do four hour training sessions with
Speaker 2: law enforcement officers. I feel like this, like they're trying
Speaker 2: to drink water from a fire hose, right. It's coming
Speaker 2: down a fast and hard and quick, and it doesn't
Speaker 2: allow for the engagement or the interaction that I really
Speaker 2: like to see occur in these training sessions with law
Speaker 2: enforcement officers. So I tell all these chiefs, I tell
Speaker 2: all these shares, don't do anything less than eight. But
Speaker 2: I would tell you, Tony, unfortunately a lot of law
Speaker 2: enforcement commanders, chiefs of police and shriffs are reluctant to
Speaker 2: do eight hour trainings. I'm very encouraged when law enforcement
Speaker 2: agencies do eight hour trainings, but I refuse to do
Speaker 2: anything less than four because I don't want to give
Speaker 2: short shrift. And some people say, what about an online training?
Speaker 2: Why don't you do online trainers? And I tell them
Speaker 2: because one quite honestly, Tony, most police officers don't want
Speaker 2: to watch online training. If it's more than thirty minutes,
Speaker 2: then they start tuning out. And if they're not compelled
Speaker 2: to sit there and watch it, they'll be easily distracted.
Speaker 2: They'll be looking at their cell phone or one thing
Speaker 2: or another, and they're not really learning it right, they're
Speaker 2: not really getting it, they're not really understanding it. Is
Speaker 2: it a lot of work to do in person training.
Speaker 2: It is, but I personally have a vested interest in this.
Speaker 1: Do you tell them about your son in their training?
Speaker 2: I tell all these officers all the time, I have
Speaker 2: a son who's twenty one years old and who is
Speaker 2: more than likely going to come in contact with you
Speaker 2: at some point in time. Others, it's not questioning if
Speaker 2: it's only a matter of when they come in contact
Speaker 2: with a law enforcement officer. In fact, there's studies recently
Speaker 2: that show that individuals with autism are seven times more
Speaker 2: likely to encounter a law enforcement officer than someone without autism. Okay,
Speaker 2: so there's been some studies too recently. By the time
Speaker 2: I think that by the time they're eighteen years old,
Speaker 2: more than a quarter of them have already encountered a
Speaker 2: law enforcement officer.
Speaker 1: Wow, that's pretty staggering numbers.
Speaker 2: I will say this, It's not all doom and gloom.
Speaker 2: I am optimistic. I'm seeing law enforcement leaders, sheriffs, chests
Speaker 2: of police are really starting to embrace this and understanding
Speaker 2: that people with autism are a significant part of their communities.
Speaker 2: They're a part of the citizenry that they serve really important.
Speaker 2: If you want to serve your citizens, well understand your
Speaker 2: citizens and those agencies that invest the time. I get
Speaker 2: a lot of feedback after my trainings. Sometimes years later,
Speaker 2: I'll have officers that will email me or they'll call
Speaker 2: me and they'll say, I got to tell you about
Speaker 2: this call that I went on, and let me tell
Speaker 2: you what happened, And I'm so glad that I came
Speaker 2: through your training because now I've felt so confident in
Speaker 2: handling this situation and they had a successful outcome. If
Speaker 2: you don't do this kind of training, you're setting your
Speaker 2: officers up for failure. And I don't blame these officers.
Speaker 2: I've seen stories in the news where officers have had
Speaker 2: unfortunately negative contacts with individuals with autism. And if you
Speaker 2: go and you start looking into the situation, what you
Speaker 2: will discover In most of these cases, these officers that
Speaker 2: you're seeing in the news that had these horrific incidents
Speaker 2: involving individuals with autism, they'd have little to no training
Speaker 2: in autism. Now, whose fault is that? Is that the
Speaker 2: officer's fault. A lot of people in the autism community
Speaker 2: and parents and caregivers, they get upset. I've seen them
Speaker 2: say that officer should be fired, he should be suspended
Speaker 2: without pay. And I tell them every time, I said,
Speaker 2: have you looked in to see whether or not this
Speaker 2: officer's had any training whatsoever? And in most cases they haven't.
Speaker 2: Is it fair to blame the officer? Because the truth is, Tony,
Speaker 2: you don't know what you don't know, and if you
Speaker 2: don't have this kind of training, you're not going to understand.
Speaker 2: That's why I do what I do, and I do
Speaker 2: it passionately. Every time I do these trainings, I try
Speaker 2: to bring folks in the autism community into these training sessions.
Speaker 2: Generally it happens towards the end of the training where
Speaker 2: I give them an opportunity to interact and engage with
Speaker 2: these first responders, because that's where the most significant part
Speaker 2: of this training occurs, is that interaction that curves between
Speaker 2: individuals with autism and law enforce. And the more opportunities
Speaker 2: we can create where we can bring people with autism
Speaker 2: into a setting with law enforcement officers and a non
Speaker 2: crisis situation, it's a win for the individual with autism
Speaker 2: and it's a win for the first responder. So I
Speaker 2: encourage these officers. I encourage these command staffs with these
Speaker 2: police departments and these fire departments to have your personnel
Speaker 2: regularly engage with people on the spectrum, because again, like
Speaker 2: I said earlier, if you meet one person with autism,
Speaker 2: you met one person with autism, and it's a wide spectrum.
Speaker 1: When you first start talking with the officers, it's like
Speaker 1: anything else. It can be two hours, four hours, six hours,
Speaker 1: eight hours. At the end of any conference, whether it's
Speaker 1: two hours all the way up to eight hours, there's
Speaker 1: going to be certain points that they remember. There will
Speaker 1: be certain points they will forget. How do you get
Speaker 1: the points to cross that you feel are most vital
Speaker 1: for them to remember? That way they do not forget it,
Speaker 1: because as we know, it's the most important things that
Speaker 1: they remember. Even if they forget some of the little
Speaker 1: things that hopefully they retain that could be most important
Speaker 1: to having a much better outcome than what it could
Speaker 1: have been.
Speaker 2: That's a great question, and one of the things that
Speaker 2: I try to stress again is patients trying to slow
Speaker 2: things down the best you possibly can. You are correct,
Speaker 2: is officers respond to various calls for service. They're responding
Speaker 2: based on the information that's received, and oftentimes that comes
Speaker 2: from a dispatcher, right, a communications operator nine one operator
Speaker 2: is giving the information the officer. So oftentimes when the
Speaker 2: officers are arriving on the scene, they're responding with only
Speaker 2: a little bit of information and they have to quickly
Speaker 2: assess and determine what is going on, and sometimes only seconds,
Speaker 2: and so they're trying to process all this information as
Speaker 2: quickly as possible. If the individual does not have a weapon,
Speaker 2: I mean they have a knife or a gun or
Speaker 2: something like that, this affords us an opportunity to try
Speaker 2: to slow things down, right, to try to practice some
Speaker 2: patients and telling them that when you're trying to communicate
Speaker 2: with somebody with autism, use the fewest words possible, use concrete,
Speaker 2: simple language, because many people with autism process language differently
Speaker 2: than the rest of us. If you tell someone with
Speaker 2: autism freeze, that means something to you, it means something
Speaker 2: to me, but that means something completely different to them.
Speaker 2: You need to use simple, concrete, direct language. You need
Speaker 2: to keep it as simple and as few words possible,
Speaker 2: giving them as much time to respond is necessary. Right,
Speaker 2: you may have someone who is a serious eloper and
Speaker 2: all of a sudden, they bolt and they take off
Speaker 2: and they start running, and maybe they're starting to run
Speaker 2: for the middle of a busy highway or a busy street.
Speaker 2: That officer at that point in time might have to
Speaker 2: go hands on. They might have to use force to
Speaker 2: stop that person. Some folks with autism have no fear
Speaker 2: of danger, so they might just take off and run
Speaker 2: out right in the middle street, and in that case,
Speaker 2: officer has to go hands on immediately. But one of
Speaker 2: the things I try to tell them, if ever possible,
Speaker 2: try to avoid touching them. If somebody with autism is
Speaker 2: actively trying to hurt another person, just because you have
Speaker 2: a disability doesn't give you a license to afflict violence
Speaker 2: on another person. You might have to stop that person
Speaker 2: from inflicting violence onto another person. You might have to
Speaker 2: go hands on. And we talk about what you should
Speaker 2: do if in fact you do go hands on with
Speaker 2: somebody with autism. We give some tips and strategies and
Speaker 2: things like that. Those are the key things right there
Speaker 2: is helping them understand one, the processing of your instructions
Speaker 2: and your language and understanding this too. Tony and I
Speaker 2: can bring this up. You have a large percentage of
Speaker 2: people with autism that are nonverbal or low verbal, and
Speaker 2: if they can speak, it might only be a few words. Now,
Speaker 2: having said that, just because someone doesn't have verbal language
Speaker 2: doesn't mean they don't understand you. Doesn't mean they're even
Speaker 2: low intelligence, right or low IQ. It doesn't mean that
Speaker 2: they might not even be able to communicate with you.
Speaker 2: And we talk about the other ways in which people
Speaker 2: who are nonverbal are low verbal, can and oftentimes do communicate,
Speaker 2: and we talk about how to deal with that. Sensory
Speaker 2: issues are also something that we have to address when
Speaker 2: we're dealing with individuals with autism. Why because you're a
Speaker 2: law enforce and often you're coming to the scene right,
Speaker 2: oftentimes in a sensory machine. You're driving a patrol car,
Speaker 2: right that has lights bright lights, that has a siren,
Speaker 2: and you're coming onto the scene. That just in and
Speaker 2: of itself can create so much anxiety in that person
Speaker 2: with autism that now it's escalated the situation in this person, right, So,
Speaker 2: now what do we need to do to try to
Speaker 2: help them manage their anxiety that they're experiencing because of
Speaker 2: the sensory input that they're receiving. So we address things
Speaker 2: like that, how to turn off your lights, how to
Speaker 2: turn off your siren if you can safely turn off
Speaker 2: your lights safely and turn off your siren, Your radio,
Speaker 2: your police radio. Sometimes the sound of the police radio
Speaker 2: can be unselling for some people of autism. A barking
Speaker 2: canine companion, these kinds of things can be on for
Speaker 2: people with autism. So we address the sensory issues. We
Speaker 2: address that as well in the trainees.
Speaker 1: Yeah, that's great, perfect. Actually, there's a wide spectrum in autism. However,
Speaker 1: there's also a wide spectrum in how we treat people
Speaker 1: with autism. The key is how we bridge that gap
Speaker 1: between autism and the first responders. The first ones that
Speaker 1: respond is always thought of as being the police. So
Speaker 1: it's very important that we do bridge that gap. For sure,
Speaker 1: hypothetical here, what happens if they have a knife, not
Speaker 1: a gun, just a knife. They're not showing real aggressive behavior.
Speaker 1: It's a dangerous thing to have, for sure, what do
Speaker 1: you advise them to do? So in the end, the
Speaker 1: outcome is one that everybody is happy with.
Speaker 2: I've never been asked this question before, but that's a
Speaker 2: great question. So normally what happens in law enforcement agencies
Speaker 2: is this is a part from autism. I'm going to
Speaker 2: address this because this is where most of this will occur.
Speaker 2: Law enforcement agenties will create scenario based training in which
Speaker 2: law enforcement officers will either have to move up the
Speaker 2: use of force continuum or move down the use of
Speaker 2: force continuum. For example, when you start to introduce lethal
Speaker 2: weapons to a scenario, it increases the chances obviously for
Speaker 2: a higher use of force response to whatever that officer
Speaker 2: is dealing with. Let's say it's a knife. One of
Speaker 2: the things too that officers are trained to do, especially
Speaker 2: when you're dealing with individuals who have knives, if and
Speaker 2: whenever possible. And I have to say this, if and
Speaker 2: whenever possible, because every situation is different. Okay, there are
Speaker 2: no two situations that are identical. What is your friend
Speaker 2: is time and distance. If I can create more distance
Speaker 2: between me and that person with that knife, it increases
Speaker 2: my chances of survival and the more time if I
Speaker 2: try to engage this person in conversation, right, we can
Speaker 2: hopefully de escalate the situation. I will say this. There
Speaker 2: is a scenario that I use in my training, and
Speaker 2: this is a story that came out of an agency
Speaker 2: in Canada years ago. This agency in Canada had created
Speaker 2: a registry for individuals with autism. And what I really
Speaker 2: liked about this registry. Say, for example, say nine to
Speaker 2: one one gets a call to the residents. This home
Speaker 2: is already been flagged because the caregiver or the parent
Speaker 2: or guardian has registered their address with the nine one
Speaker 2: one center, and so when first responders are en route,
Speaker 2: the dispatcher at the nine one one center will let
Speaker 2: the officer or the firefighter know that there is an
Speaker 2: occupant in that home with autism, and they will provide
Speaker 2: them their name, physical descriptors, things like that. But on
Speaker 2: top of all that, it'll include things like does the
Speaker 2: person have sensory issues? Does the person have communication challenges?
Speaker 2: Are they verbal or are they nonverbal? Are they low verbal?
Speaker 2: It could talk about whether or not they have self
Speaker 2: regulating behaviors that they might engage in to try to
Speaker 2: calm themselves down, and so try to help officers understand this.
Speaker 2: Part of that includes things like what sort of things
Speaker 2: might also help calm them down. You'll see individuals with autism,
Speaker 2: many of them have developed hoping mechanisms that will help
Speaker 2: them self regulate, that will help them manage their behaviors
Speaker 2: right which oftentimes to us neurotypical as folks that don't
Speaker 2: have autism, it might look unusual. It might look odd
Speaker 2: right because there's maybe hand flapping, there might be body rocking.
Speaker 2: There could be a number of different things that's going on.
Speaker 2: To the outside person or somebody who's not familiar with autism,
Speaker 2: they'll think, wow, this looks really strange. These sorts of
Speaker 2: things can be included on the registry. Also included on
Speaker 2: the registry is whatever that person's special interest is, what
Speaker 2: are the things that they like. This particular department in Canada,
Speaker 2: when they were en route to this call, they received
Speaker 2: the call on a young man with autism who had
Speaker 2: barricaded himself in the basement of the family home with
Speaker 2: a knife. No one else in the home but this
Speaker 2: young man with a knife. So now these responding police
Speaker 2: officers are going to this residence and they learn all
Speaker 2: this about this young man with autism. Guess what else
Speaker 2: they learned, Tony. They learn through this registry that his
Speaker 2: special interest was ice hockey. So when the two first
Speaker 2: responding units got there on the scene, they headed down
Speaker 2: to the basement. But because of training, they know that
Speaker 2: time and distance can help keep them alive, so they
Speaker 2: kept a safe distance between themselves and this young man.
Speaker 2: What do you think they started talking to him about
Speaker 2: Tony and they arrived on the scene ice hockey? Why
Speaker 2: because that's his special interest. So what happened They started
Speaker 2: to build some repport with this young man by engaging
Speaker 2: him in what was his special interest. After talking to
Speaker 2: him for about fifteen to twenty minutes about ice hockey, right,
Speaker 2: they said to him, Mike, we would love to talk
Speaker 2: to you about ice hockey, but you've got to put
Speaker 2: the knife down. And what do you think Mike did Tony?
Speaker 2: He put the knife down. So now, Tony, let's be fair.
Speaker 2: Is this going to work in every situation? No? Probably not,
Speaker 2: but it can. And the reason why it worked in
Speaker 2: this particular situation was because these officers had information. They
Speaker 2: had knowledge about this person that helped them when they
Speaker 2: arrived on the scene to de escalate a very volatile situation.
Speaker 2: They had not received any training, they had not received
Speaker 2: this information, things might have been handled much differently.
Speaker 1: Absolutely, in closing, what do you feel is input that
Speaker 1: the listeners here that needs to be covered in what
Speaker 1: you do?
Speaker 2: Let me just say this real quick to your listeners.
Speaker 2: It is important that first responders receive training in how
Speaker 2: to recognize and respond to autism. There's also a part
Speaker 2: that I think sometimes we're missing, and that is this,
Speaker 2: as parents, as caregivers and guardians, we need to prepare
Speaker 2: our loved ones for interactions with law enforcement and with
Speaker 2: other first responders. What does that mean? We need to
Speaker 2: help provide them with some education and some training and
Speaker 2: how to safely self disclose their autism to a first responder.
Speaker 2: I'm a firm believer Tony that if a person with
Speaker 2: autism at the onset of a contact with a law
Speaker 2: enforcement officer, the chances of that interaction going well have
Speaker 2: just increased substantially, even if the officers had zero training
Speaker 2: and autism. If an officer approaches a my sign and
Speaker 2: he says, hi, sir, what are you doing? And my
Speaker 2: son says, officer, my name is Daniel and I have autism.
Speaker 2: Can I show you my wallet card? The officer is
Speaker 2: going to say sure, and then my son's going to
Speaker 2: reach into his back pocket and he's going to take
Speaker 2: out his wallet and there's a card that's in his
Speaker 2: wallet that says my name is Daniel, and I have autism.
Speaker 2: Inspectrum disorder, and when I get nervous or anxious, I
Speaker 2: do the following things, and then it'll say things like
Speaker 2: it'll be some strategies to help me better understand you,
Speaker 2: please do the following. Then on the back of the
Speaker 2: card is a mergency contact information that includes my name
Speaker 2: and phone number, my wife's name and phone number, so
Speaker 2: if law enforcement officers will reach out and contact us.
Speaker 2: The wallet card is just one of many tools that
Speaker 2: can help individuals with autism and help safely self disclose
Speaker 2: their autism. They want to learn more about the wallet card,
Speaker 2: they can go to the website for the wallet card.
Speaker 2: It's www. Just Just or if you go to that website,
Speaker 2: there is a link there on the page where the
Speaker 2: pair and our caregiver can request a personalized wallet card
Speaker 2: for their loved one. What I love about this is
Speaker 2: each card can be personalized because autism is not a
Speaker 2: one size fits all disability, so they can customize the
Speaker 2: card to speak to whatever unique challenges and needs their
Speaker 2: loved one has and include the emerency contact information on
Speaker 2: the back. The wallet card is free. It doesn't cost
Speaker 2: anybody of dying. I'm proud to say I've been a
Speaker 2: part of that wallet card program now for over ten years.
Speaker 2: It was a partnership between the University of Miami Centers
Speaker 2: for Autism Related Disabilities, the Disability Independence Group, and the
Speaker 2: Coral Gables Police Department. Think about that wallet card. If
Speaker 2: there's one takeaway here today that you can take action
Speaker 2: all and help your loved one on the spectrum, the
Speaker 2: wallet card would be the one thing that I would
Speaker 2: suggest that.
Speaker 1: They get good. I appreciate you coming on, great conversation,
Speaker 1: a lot of great information.
Speaker 2: Thank you, Tony. It's been a pleasure, and I just
Speaker 2: again i'll tell you thank you for what you do.
Speaker 2: You provide a tremendous public service to this autism community,
Speaker 2: and it's large and it's broad. Keep doing the great
Speaker 2: work that you're doing.
Speaker 1: I appreciate it. Thanks again. Thanks for taking the time
Speaker 1: out of your busy schedule to listen to our show today.
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