Autism Training for Law Enforcement Officers: Perceptions From the Field.
Four hours of autism training make officers feel ready, yet past work shows feelings can outrun real behavior change.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Researchers ran a 4-hour autism class for 27 police officers. The class used slides, videos, and role-plays.
After the class, the officers joined small focus groups. They talked about what they learned and how ready they felt.
What they found
Every officer said the class was useful. They felt more confident and could name clear autism facts.
No one tracked if the officers acted differently on the street. The study only asked how they felt.
How this fits with other research
Ethridge et al. (2020) ran a similar class and gave a knowledge test. Scores jumped before and after, backing up the new feel-good reports.
Granillo et al. (2022) later surveyed 130 trained officers. Those officers still used lots of force, especially the men. That result seems to clash with the happy talk in Van Gaasbeek et al. (2026). The gap shows feelings do not equal behavior.
Costa et al. (2020) tried the flip side: they used VR to teach autistic teens how to talk to police. Pairing both types of training—officer and citizen—may work better than officer-only classes.
Why it matters
A short class lifts officer confidence, but confidence alone will not keep your clients safe. Push your local police to add real-world drills, track use-of-force numbers, and bring autistic speakers into every class. Ask for data, not just smiles.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Autistic individuals and law enforcement officers are likely to engage under various circumstances within the community. Therefore, law enforcement officers require training on supporting those with autism and better understanding autistic behaviors. Aims for this study include: (1) developing and delivering high quality professional development on autism spectrum disorder (ASD) to support autistic individuals during encounters with law enforcement officers, and (2) examining how law enforcement officers respond to the professional development session. For this study a four-hour, in-person training on autism for law enforcement officers was developed. Law enforcement officers (n = 27) attended the training session. Subsequently, participants completed an open-ended survey gathering perceptions related to the topics covered in the training, thoughts on the feasibility and applicability of content, and transfer to future safety encounters involving autistic individuals. Data was analyzed using a qualitative approach including concept driven thematic coding with constant comparisons. Data yielded themes on experiences with the autistic community, strategies learned from the training, thoughts on specific content, and feedback on the training format. Overall, law enforcement officers reported they felt better prepared, more knowledgeable on the autistic community, and believed the strategies were feasible and applicable to the field. These findings point to the importance of training on autism and that law enforcement officers found it was time well spent. Future directions include examining how training transfers to practice in the field and ways to connect law enforcement officers with the autistic community outside of emergency response.
Journal of autism and developmental disorders, 2026 · doi:10.1007/s10803-022-05855-x