Posted on Apr 14, 2019
How One Mother's Battle Is Changing Police Training On Disabilities
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Much of their training revolves around how to gain and maintain control of a situation. Police training programs nationwide spend, on average, 168 hours teaching officers about use of force, weapons and defensive tactics, according to the most recent statistics from the Justice Department. That compares with only 10 hours spent on mental illness, for example. For that report, the government did not track the training time devoted to intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Police training often creates the mindset: "I am the boss. You do what I tell you to do," says Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and now a University of South Carolina law professor who studies police regulation. "And if someone doesn't do what I tell them to do, it is indicative of a potential threat."
Experts say people with intellectual disabilities may have trouble processing those orders. They may struggle to follow directions or manage emotions.
"It's not always noncompliance. It's not always resistance. Sometimes it's inability," Stoughton explains. "The officer very often will perceive that inability as a refusal."
Some police training addresses intellectual and developmental disabilities within what is known as crisis intervention training, which largely focuses on mental illness and substance abuse. At least 27 states and the District of Columbia require officers to be taught how to respond to someone with mental health or substance abuse issues, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Stoughton says the skills taught in those types of training — good communication skills, practicing patience, and earning a person's cooperation — may apply when responding to a person with an intellectual or developmental disability.
But, he says, the signs of a mental health crisis don't always apply to someone with this type of disability. Without specific training on these disabilities, he says, an officer might not recognize that they should adjust their behavior.
"Different tools to use on the street"
Six years after Ethan Saylor's death, Maryland has become a leader among states in requiring police training on how to respond to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions adopted the new requirements statewide in 2014. The next year, the state established the Ethan Saylor Alliance, which helps ensure that people with these types of disabilities play a central role in the training.
Two professors at Loyola University Maryland, Lisa Schoenbrodt and Leah Saal, developed one such training. With a state grant, they hired 10 adults with a range of disabilities to role-play common scenarios with police. Last fall, they piloted the class at Prince George's Community College.
Police training often creates the mindset: "I am the boss. You do what I tell you to do," says Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and now a University of South Carolina law professor who studies police regulation. "And if someone doesn't do what I tell them to do, it is indicative of a potential threat."
Experts say people with intellectual disabilities may have trouble processing those orders. They may struggle to follow directions or manage emotions.
"It's not always noncompliance. It's not always resistance. Sometimes it's inability," Stoughton explains. "The officer very often will perceive that inability as a refusal."
Some police training addresses intellectual and developmental disabilities within what is known as crisis intervention training, which largely focuses on mental illness and substance abuse. At least 27 states and the District of Columbia require officers to be taught how to respond to someone with mental health or substance abuse issues, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.
Stoughton says the skills taught in those types of training — good communication skills, practicing patience, and earning a person's cooperation — may apply when responding to a person with an intellectual or developmental disability.
But, he says, the signs of a mental health crisis don't always apply to someone with this type of disability. Without specific training on these disabilities, he says, an officer might not recognize that they should adjust their behavior.
"Different tools to use on the street"
Six years after Ethan Saylor's death, Maryland has become a leader among states in requiring police training on how to respond to people with intellectual and developmental disabilities.
The Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions adopted the new requirements statewide in 2014. The next year, the state established the Ethan Saylor Alliance, which helps ensure that people with these types of disabilities play a central role in the training.
Two professors at Loyola University Maryland, Lisa Schoenbrodt and Leah Saal, developed one such training. With a state grant, they hired 10 adults with a range of disabilities to role-play common scenarios with police. Last fall, they piloted the class at Prince George's Community College.
How One Mother's Battle Is Changing Police Training On Disabilities
Posted from npr.orgPosted in these groups: 
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Police Law Enforcement
Posted >1 y ago
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Police training often creates the mindset: "I am the boss. You do what I tell you to do," says Seth Stoughton, a former police officer and now a University of South Carolina law professor who studies police regulation. "And if someone doesn't do what I tell them to do, it is indicative of a potential threat."
Sometimes this thought process leads to excessive force like shoot then ask, or shooting someone walking away, or pummeling someone who is already on the ground.
Sometimes this thought process leads to excessive force like shoot then ask, or shooting someone walking away, or pummeling someone who is already on the ground.
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Good information, my experience has been that officers do what they can to resolve the event they are dealing with in a manner that does not require the use of force beyond their physical presence. Departments have been adding training as it becomes available in areas like this. sadly the fact is that a lot of departments have limited funds and the ability to send officers to training like this or it does not exist at all in a formal form in their area. I and others in my area were lucky enough to have received training specific to this issue as well as other special needs matters and mental health issues within the respective communities they serve, this occurred over time and not always as a result of events happening. Many officers are willing to take this training but it's not always readily available. Officers are trained to assert command and control of events because often they are, unfamiliar with the persons and the circumstances, not because of ego but as a general rule they are outnumbered on calls, to begin with (one man cars), it allows them to asses and judge and slow down very fast-moving developments by of both parties and any third parties injecting additional stress to the event of what's going on and then take any additional action they may need to take if any at all. on top of all of that, we have no idea what type of call the officers had just left in order to deal with the one they are presented with now. Do mistakes happen yes they do and sadly people like to assume that the officer did so with the intent to cause the end result. The officer tool kit is being added to daily and it's getting bigger with each new cause that needs special training and officers are doing the best they can day in and out with more success than failures. keep in mind that out of 18,000 law enforcement agencies. The most common type of agency is the small-town police department that employs 10 or fewer officers.
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