Another Tragic Police Encounter Involving Autism

The news grabbing headline of a police encounter last Friday that resulted in a thirteen-year-old boy with autism being shot multiple times by Salt Lake City police rocks our world. The boy’s mother, Golda Barton, called 911 seeking a crisis team to help de-escalate her son, Linden Cameron.

Suffering from separation issues, he was upset that his mother had returned to work for the first time in a year. While she made clear that her son has Asperger’s Syndrome and was unarmed, Salt Lake City police dispatched a report of a boy having a “mental episode” who had “made threats to some folks with a weapon.” No such weapon existed. When police came upon the scene they ordered Cameron to the ground. When he ran away in fear, an officer opened fire leaving him hospitalized with injuries to his shoulder, both ankles, intestines and bladder.

This tragedy represents a nexus of issues involving autism. While some police departments are making great strides in training their officers about autism and even equipping them with Sensory Kits to help put autistic individuals at ease, others are completely clueless and generate disaster. There is a national imperative to re-train police departments across the country if they are to continuing answering these kinds of calls.

A 2009 document produced by the Americans for Effective Law Enforcement (AELE) explains how dealing with autism is counter-intuitive to normal police training:

“Unfortunately, the presence of police–lights and sirens, uniforms, loud and unfamiliar voices, barking dogs–often makes a difficult situation worse by contributing to the individual’s sensory overload. Traditional law enforcement techniques for controlling and containing such a situation are ineffective and may provoke further escalation or a violent physical outburst by the person with ASD.” “Paradoxically, the more force a police officer applies to gain control over the situation, the more dangerous and out of control the situation likely becomes. Instead, calmness, patience, and geographical containment, as opposed to physical force, will usually lead to a de-escalation of behavior within a few minutes. A police officer unprepared to recognize the signs of ASD and respond appropriately not only places the person with ASD at unnecessarily greater risk of the use of force but also creates a more dangerous situation for the officer.”

So the knowledge is there but the universal training is not.

While “Defund The Police” is a loaded slogan these days, there is growing consensus that mental health emergencies should be moved out of the domain of law enforcement and handled by crisis teams instead. Such a program has existed successfully in Eugene, Oregon for thirty years. The CAHOOTS program sends an unarmed team of Mental Health worker and an EMT (paramedic) to respond to non-criminal emergency calls in their community. They have the skills and training between them to deal with mental health and disability issues, homelessness, intoxication, substance abuse, homelessness and dispute resolution. The program reduces confrontations with police officers, saves money and allows law enforcement to focus on actual crime. 911 calls involving violence or criminal activity go straight to the police. Out of the 24,000 calls CAHOOTS has fielded, only 150 required police back up.

The nation is grappling with profound issues and the darkness can feel overwhelming. We know that knowledge and training are key to positive outcomes. Breakthroughs have been made that deserve to be replicated. Autistic Lives Matter.