Brevard officers learning how to handle autism

When Bryson Bouley came face to face with a police officer for the first time, he was scared.

When the officer began asking questions, his hands on his gun belt, Bouley didn’t know how to answer.

“He was asking me question after question and I couldn’t answer any of them,” said Bouley, 21.

It was the first time Bouley had been up close and personal with a police officer. It was also probably the first time the officer had dealt with someone with autism.

Florida Tech autism center training Brevard police

“I did tell him I had Asperger’s,” said Bouley, who is in the College Internship Program in Melbourne, which assists young adults with learning differences. “I tried to be very clear with him.”

Delays in processing are a common symptom of autism, which affects 1 in 68 children. So is avoiding eye contact, poor conversation skills and sometimes the inability to communicate at all.

“What we don’t want teachers or law enforcement officers to do is misconstrue that symptom of autism as being evasive or disrespectful or lying,” said Michael Kelley, director of the Scott Center for Autism Treatment at the Florida Institute of Technology.

The Scott Center held its first training session for Brevard County officers Wednesday morning at the Eastern Florida State College Melbourne campus. Teachers, parents and officers from six agencies across the county turned out to learn how to recognize the symptoms of autism and respond appropriately.

Lisa Goring, executive vice president of programs and services at Autism Speaks says it’s imperative for agencies to have this sort of ongoing training. To date, Autism Speaks has provided training to more than 18,000 first responders.

“Not enough officers are aware of autism and know how to deal with it properly,” said James States, an officer with the Melbourne Airport Police for the last 10 years, who attended the training.

But after the Charles Kinsey shooting in Miami, he says more are looking to learn.

“To me, it was a completely unambiguous situation,” Kelley said of the July 18 incident when police shot behavioral therapist Charles Kinsey in the leg as he tried to calm an autistic patient sitting in the street. The head of the police union later said the officer had accidentally shot Kinsey, and was in fact aiming for the patient. “Hopefully, any officer in that room today in that situation wouldn’t get his gun out.”

Kelley isn’t expecting officers to be able to diagnosis autism, but he would like them to be able to recognize the classic signs, such as repetitive motions, rocking back and forth and fixated interest in objects. In the case of Charles Kinsey, his patient sat in the street playing with a toy truck.

“It brought awareness to us that we need to be able to recognize the difference in individuals,” said Michael Cadore, the public safety coordinator for Eastern Florida’s Public Safety Institute.

In those situations, officers need to slow down and show more patience, said Cadore, who also works with the Rockledge Police Department. Other officers pointed out they sometimes only have a split second to respond.

States recalled an incident at the airport when an autistic boy wouldn’t get into the car with his mom. Someone who wasn’t familiar with autism might have told them to leave or issued a ticket, but States, recognizing there wasn’t any imminent danger, let the family sit there until the boy felt like getting in more than an hour later.

Kelley encouraged officers to use calming body language, give extra personal space, speak slowly with simple language and repeat and rephrase questions if needed. If restraining an autism suspect or victim is necessary, he emphasized the need to do so cautiously, as many autistic individuals have seizure disorders.

Young adults with autism get support at CIP Brevard

Recent changes in state law have sought to improve the way police interact with autistic individuals.

As of July 1, upon request, officers must make a good faith effort to have a mental health professional present at interviews with autistic people. While Kelley applauded the statute, he said the cart is a little ahead of the horse.

“The system’s not in place,” he said. “The need is huge; the demand is huge. The supply of people who can do the work is limited.”

Still, safety is a concern for Barbara Kennedy, whose 24-year-old autistic son Andy goes to college in New York. Kennedy, associate provost at Eastern Florida's Titusville campus, remembered how he exemplified classic signs of detachment and interrupted routine when his apartment building caught fire.

“[His sister] literally could not get him to open the door,” she recalled, adding his fixated interest on his belongings played a part. “Part of that was that he wanted to protect the things in his room. … That’s just the way they think.”

Contact Glenn at caglenn@floridatoday.com or 321-576-5933, and follow her on Twitter @bycarolineglenn and like "Education at Florida Today" on Facebook.