Facilitating Interaction with Police During Routine Traffic Stops for Persons with ASD.
One mock traffic stop cuts fear and raises know-what-to-do for drivers with autism.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Grindle et al. (2025) ran one practice traffic stop for drivers with autism. The team set up a real police car, officer, and flashing lights in a parking lot.
Each driver walked through a full stop twice. They practiced handing over license, answering questions, and keeping hands visible.
What they found
Right after the session, drivers felt less scared and more sure of what to do. The calm feeling and better knowledge lasted weeks later for the few who answered the follow-up survey.
No one needed extra help once the car pulled away.
How this fits with other research
Mailey et al. (2021) flipped the script. They trained police officers with actors who played autistic drivers. Both studies used the same fake-stop idea, but Harry trained the driver while Caitlin trained the officer. Together they show practice on either side of the window helps.
Yamamoto et al. (2020) also used a pretend setting. They taught teens with autism to greet co-workers in a mock office. Like Harry, one short round of practice worked. The lesson: simulation helps across ages and places.
Chen et al. (2016) warned that social moments can spike anxiety even when people enjoy them. Harry’s drivers felt less fear after rehearsal, proving a planned walk-through can turn that spike down.
Why it matters
A traffic stop is high-stakes and unpredictable. One 20-minute run-through gives your adult clients a clear script and lowers their heart rate. Add it to transition plans before anyone gets a permit. Invite local officers; they learn too.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
A product of ASD socio-communicative-deficits and insufficient police training related to autism, ASD-police interactions have the potential to become problematic, with negative outcomes for ASD individuals and police alike. Thus, the combination of police acclimation, simulatory experience for drivers with ASD and the introduction of Connecticut's recent Blue Envelope could improve overall experiences for drivers. A simulated routine traffic stop practice event, utilising pre- and post- measures was conducted in an effort to quantify drivers' feelings about current and future interactions with police. Our prediction that participants would experience a statistically significant improvement in anxiety, comfort and self-perceived knowledge levels about future ASD-police interactions immediately following the intervention was confirmed. Our prediction that initially significant disparities between participants with and without police experience - those with previous police encounters versus those that don't - would become not significant immediately following the intervention was disconfirmed. While the longitudinal data suggested that improved post-intervention ASD psychological measures remained statistically significant in the long-term, the sample responses to our long-term questionnaire were too few in number to make any definitive conclusions. It is suggested that practice traffic stops such as these could benefit both drivers with ASD and law enforcement nationwide. It is further suggested that police officer curriculums should include additional training regarding special populations.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2025 · doi:10.1177/10883576211023312