April is National Autism Awareness month and the Great Barrington Police Department is expanding its training to include a series of trainings on this topic.
Over the month of April, Great Barrington Police Officers will receive trainings that will give officers guidance to help identify people with Autism, techniques to help the officers interact with autistic individuals, and a training to give officers an understanding of autism characteristics and behavior.
We are grateful to The Stanton Home, a residential program for people with disabilities, who has provided the police department with a resource manual focused on assisting officers when interacting with individuals at their homes. This resource includes educational components to help officers understand their clients and to help communicate with them in a more effective manner.
Chief Storti said, “This is great example of how we can educate our officers by having a deeper understanding of all of the people who make up our community. It is by the community and police working together that we can provide exceptional service to everyone. “
If you would like the GBPD to know about any specific considerations regarding an individual in your household refer to our website: https://greatbarringtonpolice.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/157/2021/04/Autism-form-1.pdf
If you would like to learn more about Autism, please go to: https://www.autism-society.org/what-is/