Police Training on Autism

This past week I was getting my hair done and I was on the topic of my job and how its been lately.  I work at a Therapeutic School for children with Autism. As I was explaining how my days and weeks have been, we also got on the topic of her husband's job. Her husband works as a police officer and recently switched departments. She told me he had to go a week-long training on autism and other special needs and what to do when involved in those types of calls. After hearing about his training and how it affected him, I came across an article on Facebook this week. "Police Undergo Autism Training". How crazy that we just had this conversation and now it's coming up on my social media? The article showed a video of what the officers experienced during the training. Not only did they have people speak who are trained in Autism and Developmental delays, but they also have parents, advocates, and individuals with special needs share their stories. This made it 100% more real on why this training is so necessary. Every day police can and will be met with individuals with special needs and they need to be prepared. Often times these individuals have processing delays in which can affect how they understand what's happening. Police officers need to understand every individual they may come across and know that some disabilities can be unseen. Some individuals might be scared and fell the need to run despite the situation. It is important that all officers are trained so they can best asset the situation and how to help.