On Tuesday, May 15, Casey Lau, Associate at our Center, attended the POAC Autism Shield Training for First Responders hosted by the New Jersey Office of Emergency Management. The training was attended by police officers, EMTs, and firefighters from throughout the state of New Jersey. The primary purpose of the training was to make first responders aware of the characteristics of autism, offer methods in responding to situations where autistic individuals are involved, identify public safety risks for people who have autism, explain the problems that a higher functioning person with autism may have in criminal justice situations, and provide methods for first responders to proactively work with individuals who have autism, their families, and advocacy organizations.

The training was offered by the [NJ dept. of public safety] and presented by POAC director Gary Weitzen.  Weitzen’s own son has autism, and his presentation offered personal stories along with stories of real-life situations involving New Jersey law enforcement and autistic individuals that he has learned about through his work with POAC.  He discussed the importance of first responders being able to understand the characteristics of autism and how it can affect their interactions with such individuals because people with developmental disabilities are 7 times more likely to encounter law enforcement than the general population.

1 in 34 children in New Jersey is autistic and life expectancy for someone with autism is only 36 years.  Many deaths of autistic individuals are due to accidents.  90% of deaths of children with autism are due to drowning.  Weitzen discussed how it is important for first responders to search bodies of water first around the area which an autistic child went missing.  He recounted one story where he had given a training to a department, and two days later they were able to save a child with autism from drowning in their neighbor’s pool because they had learned to check bodies of water in the area from the POAC’s Autism Shield Training.

Weitzen also discussed how being aware of certain characteristics that individuals with autism have can help first responders in the field.  For example, some individuals with autism may lurch forwards and backward, so if it is necessary to restrain an individual with autism, first responders should make sure not to stand directly in front or behind the individual.  He also discussed how autistic individuals take things very literally and said first responders should avoid the use of idioms when asking questions and consider rephrasing questions if an individual cannot answer a question one way.  For example, an individual with autism may not know their address if you ask for it, but if you ask them to show you their house, they may be able to point to it or give directions.  Other techniques include prompting an individual with the area code of a phone number.  Often an autistic individual will be able to complete the rest of their phone number if they see their three digit area code first.

Weitzen stressed that officer safety should come first because the public cannot be safe if police officers are not safe.  He hopes that by having a better understanding of the characteristics of autism that first responders will not only be able to keep themselves safe but also interact with individuals with autism in a way that will keep them safe and even foster trust between law enforcement, individuals with autism, and their families.

You can learn more about POAC and the Autism shield training from their website: https://www.poac.net/training/first-responders-training/.