Autism Training for Law Enforcement Officers: A Scoping Review.

The authors hunted for every paper that tested autism training for police. They found only five.

No one compared before-and-after arrests or use-of-force numbers. The five studies just described what officers learned or felt.

All five programs taught the same three blocks: core traits of autism, ways to calm a scene, and clear short phrases to use.

Hours ranged from one short roll-call briefing to a full day. None measured if autistic people were safer after the class.

Ethridge et al. (2020) and Granillo et al. (2022) show why we need more than a feel-good class. Their officers gained knowledge yet still used handcuffs and loud commands in most calls.

Van Gaasbeek et al. (2026) adds a bright note: a four-hour lesson left officers saying, "I get it now." But without behavior data, the claim is thin.

Green et al. (2020) and Bitsika et al. (2020) give the other side. Autistic adults report police often read stimming as defiance. They urge trainers to put autistic voices on the podium—something none of the five reviewed programs did.

If your agency runs autism training, borrow the core trio from these five studies, then fix their blind spots. Add live role-play with autistic volunteers and track real metrics: use-of-force reports, injuries, and citizen complaints. One day of slides is not enough.