After Victor Perez, a nonverbal 17-year old boy with autism was fatally shot by Pocatello police, national advocates are calling for reform in police training.
In body cam footage released Thursday, it showed there were no deescalation practices when Pocatello police officers approached Perez.
The National Institute of Health reports people with autism encounter law enforcement at disproportionate rates, and it's becoming more common. Now, advocates across the United States are calling for improvements to police training.
Kate Movius founded the training organization Autism Interaction Solutions.
“What happens a lot in our community is you have a lot of representation of verbal autistic people, people who are able to sort of remain regulated and calm and they're able to talk, which is really important for law enforcement training," Movius said.
Every month, she conducts trainings for the Los Angeles Police Department on how to interact with people with autism. In addition to teaching de-escalation and communication tactics, her classes include co-teachers with autism, something she believes is missing from most training.
“We don't get as much representation from the more profound part of the spectrum. In other words, those who are nonverbal, those who are dependent on 24/7 care, those who are at grave risk of wandering or going missing” Movius said.
The ARC, a national disability advocacy group, also responded to Perez’s death in a statement released on April 14 . In the statement, they advocate for national standards in police training and wrote:
“Training on this topic is too haphazard and not standardized across police agencies in the U.S., meaning that some officers get trained while others don’t.”
The Idaho Peace Officer Standards and Training curriculum says when responding to someone with developmental disabilities, responders should among other things use a calm, normal tone of voice, use simple, short direction, and note that lack of eye contact or verbal skills does not mean noncompliance.
