Law Enforcement Officers' Preparation for Calls Involving Autism: Prior Experiences and Response to Training.

Ethridge et al. (2020) gave 67 officers a four-hour class about autism.

The class covered why stimming happens, how to speak slowly, and how to calm a meltdown.

Before and after the class the officers took a test on autism facts and rated their own confidence.

After the short class the officers knew more facts and felt surer of themselves.

Female officers gained the most confidence and said they used handcuffs less often.

The study had no control group, but the gains were large enough to matter.

Granillo et al. (2022) later asked the same trained officers what happened on real calls.

They found that even after training, most calls still ended with force or restraint.

This looks like a contradiction, but the 2020 paper only measured what officers knew, not what they did.

Van Gaasbeek et al. (2026) ran the same four-hour class again and officers again said they felt ready, yet still offered no proof of safer behavior.

Waldron et al. (2023) scoping review counts the target study among only five small trials, warning that feel-good scores do not equal safer streets.

You now know a brief autism lecture helps officers pass a quiz, but it does not guarantee gentler real-life responses.

If you help design police training, add practice drills and feedback from autistic people, not just slides.

Track actual use-of-force reports instead of only confidence ratings so you can prove the training really works.