After a packed week in St Paul I flew into Boston on Friday and spent a couple of nights in the city. I’d visited years ago but it was nice to see the sights again. I even managed a bike tour which was a great way to see the city. Yesterday I picked up my hire car and after a bit of a disaster with a clarty AirBnB and subsequent emergency hotel booking I got settled in Westwood, Massachusetts.
Westwood is the home of the Arc of South Norfolk Family Autism Centre, which is where the Autism and Law Enforcement Education Coalition (ALEC) is based. ALEC has been on the go since 2003 when a group of Law Enforcement and Fire officers with family members on the spectrum approached the District Attorney’s office to start a training programme. From there it’s grown to become a (part) state-funded programme which is a mandatory training session in the State’s police training academies.
I met with Bill Cannata, a Fire Department Captain and director of ALEC, and Lt. Marty Baker, who retired from the Norwood Police Department just over a year ago. Both Bill and Marty instruct on the ALEC course and were totally passionate about it. They were both inspired to get involved by having family members on the spectrum and emphasised the importance of instructors having that duel experience of the personal and the professional. All ALEC’s instructors have autistic family members and every session is tailored to the department being taught – so police officers teach police classes, fire officers teach fire department classes and so on.
The ALEC class lasts around 3-4 hours to fit in with official training blocks. The first half is an introduction to autism, what it is, recognising behaviours etc. The second half of the class is then taken up by situational learning using videos and examples of incidents that have actually happened to help educate officers on how to deal with people they come across. This is very similar to what I saw in St Paul and just emphasises the importance of having a practical aspect to the training, as in how you’d actually use it out on the street.
Also present at ALEC this morning was Boston Police Department’s Officer Michelle Maffeo. Michelle works very closely with ALEC and has, with the support of her Commissioner, established a fantastic autism programme in Boston. She has succeeded in getting every officer trained (albeit using an online training, but that’s better than nothing!) and has the training programme established in the academy. She has branched out to train other law enforcement agencies and even to the local emergency hospitals. Michelle also established the North Star programme, which is a personal alert for people with autism or Alzheimer’s. Parents or caregivers can provide the police with a photograph and personal information which will assist in the event of a person going missing. Michelle is active in schools and regularly holds events and open days at local schools to make them more accessible.
After a lunch of Massachusetts’ traditional steak tips (thanks Bill!) I visited Norwood PD with Marty Baker. It was great to be shown around and everybody I met there was knowledgeable on the ALEC programme, having been through the training. I was fortunate to meet with Officer Greg Shore, who has taken on the job of furthering the autism programme since Marty retired. Greg is also a Mental Health trainer and has been able to establish projects like a Community Crisis Intervention Team (CCIT). This brings together all the relevant partners in the area to discuss individual cases and ensure the right help is given. Greg believes that making things personal (talking about real people) makes sure that things happen and help is given faster. CCIT is built on the Crisis Intervention Team training which seems to be a focus at the moment in the US. This aims to educate first responders about people in crisis and steer them away from entering the criminal justice system and more towards a community-based care approach. It’s a 40 hour training programme and Massachusetts has around 20% of its officers trained. If a call comes in regarding someone in crisis a CIT-trained officer should ideally be sent. ALEC has been adopted as part of the CIT training in Mass. which is a reflection on its success.
So another full and educational day. Again I’ve been welcomed wholeheartedly and people have gone out of their way for me which I really appreciate. I’m now stowed out with patches and pins! I forgot to take pictures today though, so here’s some of Boston instead:
Churchill Fellowship 2018 - Autism & Policing: Best Practice in Training and Education 