ATHENS, Ala. — Just like you may have to undergo corporate training at your job, law enforcement officers have to do the same.
Recently the folks at Athens Police Department underwent training to better interact with people apart of the autism spectrum disorder (ASD) community.
"No two people are alike, even when it comes to differently-abled people, that they may even have the same medical diagnosis but there will be different things, different characteristics they display that we can adapt and try to make the people comfortable in certain situations," said Officer Brett Constable of the Athens Police Department.
President of The Autism Resource Foundation, Betsy Berman agrees, "once you've met one person with autism, you've met one person with autism because everyone really is different. So you know, knowing those things [those differences] and you know, looking for hand gestures or other stems that we call them will be helpful."
Not only did these officers learn that every single person on the spectrum is different. They also learned that patience can be a matter of life and death when it comes to interacting with someone with ASD.
"Of course, we want them to still use officer safety tactics. But what was stressed during this class was as long as you're safe, you know, there's no rush on this. There's no time limit, take as long as you need to resolve this peacefully," said Constable.
"You know, many instances that you'll see in the news across the country, that, you know, a police officer has either tackled and handcuffed or heaven forbid shot and killed because they didn't know what they were dealing with and how to interpret the actions of that person. So, hoping to deescalate some of those situations is obviously you know, can be life and death," said Berman.
Constable says that this training will greatly benefit APD officers as they go out and continue to serve the community.