Training for law enforcement and first responders isn’t just about guns and car chases. Captain Manny Ayers, of Montclair Police Department, writes that Montclair’s finest and bravest are in a special training course this week:
The Montclair Police Department has partnered with P.O.A.C , the Parents of Autistic Children, to train police officers and firefighters in identifying and properly responding to emergencies involving persons with autism. The training is being presented by Gary Weitzen, the Executive Director of POAC. The training is taking place at Montclair Fire Headquarters, during the police departments semi-annual training.
It is the goal of the Montclair Police and Fire Department that our officers and firefighters gain a basic understanding of the disability , and are able to identify behaviors and characteristics associated with autism and related neurological disorders such as Asperger’s Syndrome. Specifically, we hope that this training will give our officers the necessary knowledge in the event that they respond to a call where a person with autism is involved.
We want to provide first responders with the tools that they will need to recognize and understand that individuals with this neurological disorder have behaviors that are unique, and can be misinterpreted. Most important is that we educate our first responders in how to elicit information from the individual so that we are better able to assist them.
It’s an opportunity to build a positive relationship with a segment of the community that has unique needs and challenges. We understand that the likelihood of encountering an individual with autism can be stressful and challenging for all involved. We hope that through this training we can work to ensure that any interaction between police officers and firefighters with those in the community who have autism result in positive outcomes.
Well done!
So the police officers were paid how much, probably in O.T., to be specially trained to deal with the one in ten thousand case when an emergency involves an autistic person?
I wish someone would curb the autism lobby. It’s way out of control.
Wow…talk about douchey comment Walleroo…
Eloquent rebuttal, mkal.
Why thank you Walleroo….oh and get a life loser.
Ah, this must be one of the sophisticated tactics of the autism crowd, taken from the middle school playground handbook. Next thing you know mkal will steal my lunch money and make fun of my orthopedic shoes. Don’t worry, you apparent dimwit, I’m going to sign off now, so you can be sure to have the last word. Don’t be nervous now, you can do it.
I think it’s ridiculous.
WOW walleroo. What’s your problem?? The number of autistic children in NJ is 1 in 90. And 1 in 60 boys has it. One of them happens to be mine.
Happy to see they are doing this. We could ALL use a little education ; )
mutt-
I too feel that we need education on how to deal with an Autistic child in emergencies. I think the money is well spent.
HOWEVER, when walleroo said “1 in a thousand” was representing how many autistic cases there are in emergency situations…. not how many people have Autism.
I was an EMT-P for 6 years and never once had to deal with an Autistic Patient. And I probably treated close to 2,000 people
As long as P.O.A.C. didn’t charge any money for the lecture and the MPD and MFD weren’t paid any extra for attending it, I don’t see the harm in it.
Having met autistic children before (on old neighbor was severely autistic) I think this is a great idea. my old neighbor was 19, still wore diapers, literally had a padded room and watched sesame street all day long. Special training is most definitely required when dealing with someone like him…
Sometimes I’m still amazed at the comments I read here. I don’t know why, one would think after reading comments posted her after the years I would be used to them.
The MPD officers attended this training class as part of their required semi-annual training and requalifications. It was part of their normal workday and no overtime was paid. What surprises me is that with everything that is expected of us, there would be those that would complain about officers being educated in something they may encounter. If we weren’t trained in how to deal with an autistic person, and God forbid someone was hurt because we didn’t recognize them and deal with them properly I’m certain that there would be an even greater outcry about why we weren’t trained. I’m even more certain that any lawsuit that followed would be larger than what would have been paid in OT for the training.
I may not encounter an autistic person that frequently, but that is exactly the training that I want, otherwise when would I learn how to handle such situations. I hope I would never have to use my firearm, but that doesn’t mean I shouldn’t train regularly how to use it.
I think it’s a good thing. To its detractors, how does this differ from the police learning to deal with persons with Alzheimer’s, for example, or a severely mentally ill person? Education and awareness are never bad things in my book.
Welcome back, Tpr.! You always had such great information for all of us!
On a totally different subject, I was wondering what you and the other officers thought about the new security cameras that are being installed around town?
Many are excited about them, feeling they’ll make a big impact on crime and increase the sense of security.
Dear MM,
MPD was very enthusiastic about the security cameras and folks hearing about them felt the more of them we had the better off we’d be.
Not sure where they all are, but I think at least one was just installed in “the Watchung area”.
I believe they are in the order of $25K to $40K each.
Cary Africk
2nd Ward Councilor
Tpr. Truth,
I too am amazed by the comments I see here. And believe that these comments are not at all representative of the community we live in. I have had some experience with the MPD and have never had any reason to complain or moan about their performance. I would like to see the dept giving out more of those tickets to drivers that don’t stop at crosswalks. I know that I became more aware of the crosswalks because of the campaign but am sometimes afraid to stop because more than once I’ve seen the pedestrians that I want to let cross almost run over by other drivers who do not stop. Two nights ago I stopped at one on Valley & Van Vleck and at least half a dozen cars coming in the other direction sailed right through before an officer stopped to let the young girl cross. As she started to cross (I was coming North) a car tried to pass me on the right (in the parking spaces) before realizing someone was crossing! Scared the bejesus out of me.
Being Special Education teacher, I think this is a great idea. I once had a student wonder away from his house and the police officer who found him did not know how to properly handle the situation (understandably so). There is a pretty big autistic population in Montclair so this training would be very beneficial.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but we are living in a world of truly outrageous taxes. So, I completely understand that people might dread what looks like yet another thing to add to the taxpayer burden. Maybe the details about how the class did not cost any additonal time and money was intentionally left out to get a rise out of people, I don’t know.
Let me tell you, the school portion of my taxes is astounding. And correct me if I am wrong, but as an outsider, it seems like 1 in 5 kids has some sort of “special need” at this point, whether it be speech therapy, OT, private aids, counseling, etc. Is that true, 1 in 90 kids (60 boys) is autistic? And I feel for you, I do, but I can hear my tax bill increasing like the wheels on my gas meter turn round and round on a cold winter day.
So yes, as a childless – currently unemployed person – perhaps I am a little bitter about how much this stuff is costing me.
Yes let’s make the town even more attractive to the special ed NYC contingent. I’m looking forward to accelerating the BOE sped budget. More taxes hooray.
jimmytown wrote: “I was an EMT-P for 6 years and never once had to deal with an Autistic Patient. And I probably treated close to 2,000 people.”
It’s quite likely that you DID deal with someone on the autism spectrum but were simply unaware of it.
I am gratified that my outrageous comment elicited so much outrage (though, frankly, the autism community falls short of the bar set by the Drums of Thunder community). If Tpr Truth, one of the more knowledgeable and level-headed posters here, thinks autism training for cops is a good idea, maybe it is. I’m glad to hear it’s not costing taxpayers much. The autism lobby, however, is too much like anti-abortionists in its lack of rationality, not to mention its use of intimidation tactics. It needs to have its wings clipped.
I’m not sure where the poster above got 1 in 90 for the rate of autism. The figures I’ve seen run from 1 in 150 to 1 in 2500, depending on who’s doing the counting. What the figure obscures, at any rate, is that many autistic people function at a high level, requiring no special training on the part of cops.
Personally, walleroo, I’ve noticed that quite a few likely autistic folk, including those who seemingly function at both relatively high and very low indeed levels, seem to post here. WIthout so much as the threat of even a short-lived choke hold from the usually estimable likes of Trooper Truth.
As for terming the arguments against abortion as lacking in “rationality,” however, well, so what? Even the arguments against war and conquest, to someone like either General Guderian or Cesare Borgina, would seem short on basic rationality.
Morality is never necessarily a “rational” response to anything. Yet for some it still demands respectful, faith-based precedence. The Anabaptist Amish and Mennonites, to cite just one grouping, would refute your apparent sneering about one their core views rather quickly and vehemently. So what were you on about so confusingly in tone above?
May this wonderful new initiative lead to more internal law enforcement programs that are long overdue such as intelligence and decency being requirements for new recruits and the instruction of cognitive police work based on statistical facts (such as whites being much more likely to carry drugs, weapons, and other illegal paraphernalia) as opposed to the current and long standing trend of lazily falling back on racial profiling due to irrational and non-factual stereotypes.
I appreciate this program as someone who has an autistic relative, however there are many “groups” in this country which are far more numerous than the autistic that would benefit from not just increased sensitivity training but a thorough instruction of their history punctuated by DoJ and FBI crime data taken from the past 50 years which reveal that contrary to widely held stereotypes, the color of crime is very white.
I for one am very grateful whenever dannyboor takes the time, as he did this morning, to re-establish his bona fides as Baristaville’s in-house ethnographer and all-purpose moral authority on matters racial. Truly, we need him to sort these things out, as he apparently recognized even before anyone else did hereabouts
As for “the color of crime” being very white, however, I can only observe that while the membership of the very-much-in-rapid-decline LCN is, yes, likely Caucasian and even Sicilian in its ethnic origins, the Bloods, Crips, Five-Percenters, MS-13, Latin Kings, and so many other relatively new criminal groups suddenly threatening to the commonweal come from very different racial backgrounds indeed. Perhaps you never noticed this interesting and rather obvious point, dannyboor?
“MPD was very enthusiastic about the security cameras and folks hearing about them felt the more of them we had the better off we’d be… I believe they are in the order of $25K to $40K each.”
So they ordered 19 security cameras for “us”… Let’s see 19 x $40k = $760,000.
We can only wonder how much more the software, monitors and maintenance of the cameras will cost “us” ???
A $ million $ – plus (total) ?