FAIRVIEW

Fairview father urges police training for interaction with autistic, mentally disabled

Flagging notification system alerts police, first responders to special-needs residents

Mike Lawson want to make sure Fairview police have adequate training on interacting with autistic and mentally disabled children and adults like his daughter Kelly, shown here posing with Nashville Sounds mascot Ozzie.

People are often urged to call police when they see suspicious behavior, but one Fairview father wants to make sure those officers are trained to know the difference between suspicious behavior and the actions of a developmentally disabled child or adult.

Mike Lawson is concerned about recent accidental police shootings across the country involving developmentally disabled children and adults.

“Nothing scares me more than the thought of my 24-year-old daughter having a minor meltdown at a store and having an untrained law enforcement officer interact with her and escalate the situation into a tazing, physical altercation, or worse, her getting shot because that officer thought she was on drugs or in ‘fear for their life’ and pulled their service revolver,” Lawson said. 

Lawson recently approached city leaders about necessary training for law enforcement officers and first responders.

“We spend a lot of time, money and effort to teach our (law enforcement officers) and others to recognize behavior caused by ‘people on drugs’ that can, if applied to the developmentally disabled, lead to false assumptions and sometimes tragic results,” he said.

Fairview Police Chief Zack Humphreys confirmed his department follows the state-mandated training for mental health encounters.

Residents can call the dispatch center and notify them that a mentally disabled person lives at their home. That process, handled through the Williamson County Emergency Operations Center, is referred to as “flagging the residence, officer advisory.”

Beyond the state-mandated training and flagging, Lawson questioned whether police are trained to recognize behavior issues among autistic and mentally disabled people.

"If you walked up to an officer now and asked them if they know what ‘stimming’ is, how they would respond? Do they know the behavior by name, by sight? Do they understand that it is a neurological reaction to an overstimulated autistic brain and not a dangerous, drug-induced behavior?”

Stimming is the term used for self-stimulatory behavior where a person with autism may be seen repeating physical movements, or heard repeating words and phrases.

Lawson referenced a case in Arizona where an autistic child was “twiddling” with a string, and told the officer he was stimming. The situation escalated quickly, leading to the child being tackled by the officer.

“This could have easily been my daughter Kelly walking in Bowie Park,” Lawson said. "My daughter still stims when she is excited.”

Fairview has a large population of developmentally disabled adults and children. It is home to WAVES, offering an adult day center and adult residential program for individuals in the community with intellectual and developmental disabilities.

Lawson said training is critical with the multiple WAVES homes, and the WAVES center, and the unseen population of those residents, like his daughter and her friends.

Lawson also offered a scenario. “There is nothing to stop one of my well-meaning neighbors, who don’t know my daughter, from calling Fairview PD if they see her walking in the neighborhood, talking to herself or singing loudly, and ‘acting like she is on drugs.’ ”

He believes the response would be to send a car out, maybe with lights flashing, maybe multiple cars, to try to stop and question her, “and all hell could potentially break loose."

Yet, he said his daughter “has every right to walk down the street, even acting ‘weird’ as long as she isn’t hurting anyone or herself. Every right. And every right to not be stopped for doing so.”

In response to Lawson’s concerns, City Manager Scott Collins followed up with the Williamson County Sheriff's Office.

"On the city’s website, fairview-tn.org, we have added a button under the Departments and Services tab," Collins said. "After opening the tab, the third button is now First Responder Notifications. That button contains the email information necessary to provide dispatch with specific information regarding special needs or circumstances that may be applicable to a Fairview address."  

Collins added, “The sheriff’s department staff was very helpful on this, and we hope this link enhances the services our first responders provide.”

The new notification link is a step in the right direction, but Lawson would still like to see the city offer specific training to officers and first responders.

State mandates training

Other local police departments in Williamson County train officers to help de-escalate situations involving people who may have special needs. 

"We provide all of our officers with special training that focuses on de-escalation, especially when dealing with people who are in crisis," said Lt. Charles Warner, public information officer with the Franklin Police Department. 

Warner said the force's methods, developed by mental health and law enforcement professionals, are highly effective when assisting those with special intellectual needs. 

Brentwood Police Chief Jeff Hughes said his officers comply with the Tennessee Peace Officer Standards and Training Commission's requirements of annual training on dealing with people suspected of having mental illness. 

"The training varies from year to year regarding the topic on mental illness, but typically it relates to recognizing signs of mental illnesses and how to deal with it," Hughes said. 

Newly hired officers also undergo entry-level training on recognizing, interacting with and emergency evaluation of mentally ill individuals, Hughes said. 

The Brentwood Police Department is also in the process of beginning a Crisis Intervention Team, through which a number of officers will receive more specialized training and be available to respond to calls of people suspected of having a mental illness, Hughes said.

The Williamson County Sheriff's Office also undergoes state-mandated training on mental health, intellectual disabilities and other issues during the department's in-service training each year, said department spokeswoman Sharon Puckett. 

For more

Fairview residents can email any special-needs information, notifications or requests for first responders to stephen.m@williamson-tn.org.