Police respond with a pledge to do better.

The below letter was sent to the Chief of the Eugene Police Department commenting on his department's follow up to an incident involving the tasing of a man with autism. The man had been left in the caregiver's parked car for a brief moment, got out and wandered into a woman's apartment. He didn't respond to her communication, sat on the floor in her bedroom, and did not leave. While he wasn't threatening her, she was upset and called police. When they arrived they saw the man had "something" in his hands. When he didn't respond to their orders to drop what he had and come out, they took him down. When he continued to resist handcuffing he was tased. They discovered he was autistic later, when the caregiver found them and informed the officers.

After meeting with the man's provider, I was impressed with the department's follow up, and their eagerness to upgrade their training of officers who might face similar situations.

Chief of Police, Eugene, Oregon
November 28, 2010

Dear Chief Kerns,

I am writing to you in response to the incident involving a developmentally disabled adult who was Tased a few weeks ago while in another’s home without permission. I have met with Gretchen Dubie from OSLP about this and heard from her the story of the incident and the EPD follow up. As you know, I chaired the committee that recommended the policy for folks with disabilities (#370), and I contributed to the Taser policy discussion in the Police Commission.

My first reaction upon reading the story in the RG was one of incredulity. The story seemed so much like last year’s Tasing of the Chinese student, an incident I was sure you all would try very hard not to repeat – Tasing a person who was not verbally responsive and who ended up being no threat to anyone. But after a long conversation with Gretchen I came to believe that the officers involved were just as upset as I was with the pointless Tasing of a harmless person.

So I want to take this opportunity to congratulate your department’s response to this incident after the officers realized the person had a developmental disability. Your outreach to OSLP, and by extension the disability community, is in my view the best response I could hope for. Accepting the input from Gretchen and others (including Faith Morales and Kathy Douglass from Lane County Developmental Disabilities Services)  to amend your present CIT training elements regarding people differently abled is clearly needed, and your openness to it is the mark of a community oriented police department. We are all counting on you to develop training elements that will give officers better tools to identify people with communication or behavioral difficulties before use of force is applied.

I would like to add these thoughts to your training considerations, and please don’t hesitate to call on me as a resource for the Autism Community:

1.      I understand you have had officers visit Bridgeway House to acquaint their clientele with police officers and the safe haven they can represent, and to acquaint officers with people living with autism. I suggest you add to that program with similar visits, in uniform, to area adult group homes. Greater understanding by both groups will be a positive step forward in reducing fear of the unknown.

2.      Incorporate people with disabilities as victims or witnesses in your regular training exercises, in place of “normal” people, as you act out scenarios.

3.      Most importantly, find ways to delay a use of force response – especially when people are verbally unresponsive – to allow time for these elements of Policy #370 to be applied:

“Recognizing that various law enforcement encounters may be potentially volatile and/or emotionally charged, department employees should remain alert to the possibility of communication problems and exercise special care in the use of all gestures, body language, and verbal and written communication in an effort to minimize initial confusion and misunderstanding when dealing with any individual(s) with known or suspected disabilities or communication impairments.”

Thank you again for your openness to improving response to these kinds of incidents. I look forward to a safer community for all of Eugene’s residents.

Sincerely,

Tim Mueller,
Eugene Police Commission
Autism Society of Oregon Chapter Representative
KindTree – Autism Rocks Sec/Treas