I have an autistic child and would completely back this. Police are so often involved in life threatening situations and having that bit of extra information would diffuse the situation.
Being an autistic adult who had several traumatizing interactions with police, just because they supposed I had taken drugs while I was simply in cognitive or sensory overload, I would really like them to have more training about neurodevelopmental disorders as well as an optionnal identifier for ID papers.
I'm living in Montreal, Canada and have been diagnosed with ASD two years ago. My husband is a police officer and recently told me that he volunteered to participate in training aiming to raise awareness about autism amongst police officers and to learn how to recognize autistic behaviours during police interventions and to best navigate these police interventions. It's not exactly like the Oklahoma identifier, but I say it's a first good step. My husband is already quite knowledgeable about autism because of me and has really noticed the misinterpretation that some of his colleagues can be subject to in some interventions with autistic individuals. I was also very touched that he volunteered to do this training.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you for all your labour. I hope this reaches the indicated individuals to make it happen. Again, thanks!
This would be great everywhere and having law enforcement trained in mental health conditions and disabilities. Just like on the show “Switched at Birth “ the guy got harassed because he wasn’t responding and they didnt realize he was actually deaf not just being difficult
If you live in the USA and have to call the police on an autistic person or a mentally ill person ask if your city has a CIT team. This is a specially trained Crisis Intervention Team. They are trained in a calmer approach. It could save someone's life.
I am a person with ASD, as are my kids and grandkids, your house bill is really amazing and I would support it if it were in my state. This should be in every state. You have my respect and thanks.
Someone on my Autism forum said he put that on his license and now he can't get car insurance. No one will insure him. It woukd be better to have a separate database that first responders and police have access to.
In Australia they have brought in (or are bringing in) this but there's fines if we don't declare autism on our licenses and a lot of people are afraid of discrimination.
@@IdrilSilmarien At the moment it depends on which state you live in regarding if you have to report or not. I fortunately live in a state where that isn't something that you need to report.
Law enforcement really needs to be educated about autism, especially the common traits to look for. It wouldn't help those who don't yet know they're autistic, but would help those who have a diagnosis a lot. Every state needs a bill like this.
We have something similar in the UK - although it's not attached to the driver's licence (and thus doesn't need to be declared to an insurer), but rather a separate card. Most police forces have their own (separate) card programme, but they all informally recognise the other forces' cards. It's not necessarily so much of an issue over here, given that most interactions with the police are significantly less confrontational and stressful (not to mention potentially dangerous) than they are in the US, but still...it's useful, even if it's just to alleviate anxiety over the _possibility_ of interacting by the police.
State of Washington, US (for clarity of readers not familiar enough with the US) has an option to add a notation on a license specifying you have a developmental disability. Not sure how long they’ve had that.
I hope it passes. I have a mistrust of authority from past bad experiences. We need this is Texas too but I also need a diagnosis of Autism to be able to use it.
I highly HIGHLY dislike the idea of a cop having access to that information. I feel like it’s absolutely NONE of their business…but at the same time what choice do we have if they don’t know how to recognize it.
Neurodivergent people shouldn't have to out ourselves to authorities just to receive fair treatment. Law enforcement should be trained not to make assumptions about people's behaviour and consider that anyone *might* be autistic until they can determine otherwise. Innocent until proven guilty. Not everyone's going to be officially diagnosed, or necessarily know themselves that they should even consider getting a diagnosis, or they might have travelled from another state or another country which lacks this special marker on their ID. The idea of having any kind of marker displaying information about neurodivergence, mental health or learning disability on official ID sounds sketchy as hell from the viewpoint of a neurodivergent queer European (British, UK) where over here the names and symbols used by the Nazis to classify people like us and mark us out as exceptional and destined for special treatment still exist in the communal memory. Arguments like, "Oh it's not accessible unless there's subpoena issued by a court", don't mean much because once the data exists them someone like Trump can pretty easily write a new law to make use of the data in ways which weren't originally intended.
I agree on the theory of what you say and I work a lot on educating people about autism. But having had several traumatizing interactions with police, I'd rather "out myself" and in fact now I have several verbal and non verbal ways to let know police I'm autistic and use them as soon asI have to interact with them. and that changed the dynamic of the interactions totally. The porblem is that I can really look like I could be dangerous, it happens quite a lot that regular people will say to their child "let's change sidewalk, that person is dangerous", only because I can't stop stimming or I'm chewing a chewable. So the same was ttrue with police. But now they interpret my stereotypic movements, my lack of eye contact and even my situatonal mutism as deficits, instead of me "being violent".
That you should pick Trump out as your target is an interesting fault on your part in multiple ways, not the least because it is believed by many that his youngest son is autistic, though I don't have a confirmed source.
Completely agree my friend. As per my comment earlier, the problem is with the police and none of this should be necessary. Unfortunately, with recruitment and training of such a low standard, the reality is we need this marker as an interim insurance against malpractice by law enforcement. Same goes for other alert card systems across the world, not just for driving. We shouldn't need to out ourselves to get equal treatment but it's a real world. Stay safe bud.
They don't care if someone has something illegal or not. Comes down to if safe to drive. If not responding, how will they pull a license out? At times, with my disorders, it is not safe to drive.
There's too many secondary problems that would come with this solution. Having that mark on your driver's license won't make you any safer, but it will be known rapidly in the HR community and eventually the population in general and prevent people from getting and keeping jobs, because showing your ID is one of the first things you have to do when you get a job! Doesn't matter if you're good at the job or good at masking, they don't care, get the weirdo away from me. We'll get excluded from bars. When people realize what they can do with it, that they can exclude us, they'll start requiring people show ID for things they don't now just so they can use that to keep us out. Masking to get work is the only reason a lot of us aren't dead in a gutter, poor people are born with autism too and you can't expect our families to support us for years while we repeatedly appeal the government's ridiculous disability requirements in order to get a handout that enforces permanent poverty. It's work or starve on the street. Don't go making laws that will increase our insanely high unemployment rate even more.
A few years ago a mom called the police to have a mental health team come to take her autistic son to the hospital it ended with the police chasing him down an ally and shooting him as her RUNNING AWAY. People with mental illness are 12 times more likely to experience police brutality, which I think is down actually. I heard police say they are against training in how to handle mental health emergencies and special mental health teams because they should have to be therapists and the money could be put to better use on something else. I hope Okalahoma is smarter than that. This is a great idea.
The cops pointed guns at me because I was in the bathroom when a mental health worker called the cops on me. That was before they had specially trained cops in my city. The specially trained cops: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) cops are usually much nicer in my city. If you live in the USA ask if your city has them and ask for them to come if you call for mental health or a bad autistic meltdown. You might save someone's life.
I had a bad incident with the police before my city had specially trained police officers. The police were called on me by a mental health worker for being a danger to myself. Because I was in the bathroom when they arrived it ended up with a show of force because they could not see me before I came out. Now my city has trained officers in the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). They are usually much nicer than the regular police. If you live in the USA and have to call the police on a mentally ill or autistic individual ask if they have a CIT team and ask them to send them. You might save someone's life.
What were the results? I live in Oklahoma and could benefit from this. The other night, I was overstimulated from police lights behind me. Thankfully, I was a passenger or I would have had trouble communicating and would potentially be in trouble.
or we don't want - or feel the need - to answer their nosy questions like, where have you been/where are you going etc,- it's none of your business and your questions only rise anxiety. spread the word
The OAI sounds a good idea if your Autism troubles communication and gives off unusual signals which have to be interpreted by an officer - they have certain level of 'social anxiety to deal with in a traffic stop too! But taking Stephanie's example literally; if your unable to let go of a steering wheel and 'rocking', because you're being questioned by an authority figure, you really ought to be considering if you should be in control of a motorised vehicle. Driving is far from a stress free experience, and you have a duty of reasonable regard to other's safety and wellbeing, and a capacity to drive includes a measured anticipation of others and responding to situation outside your control. .
To be honest, yeah, this is a consideration. I realize not everyone has the luxury not to drive if they want to be employed, and it gives so much autonomy. But for some people, maybe it's best not to drive. For myself, I have slow reaction time and very poor spacial awareness. I often don't notice things happening around me unless they're directly in front of me, I'm constantly bumping into things with my body, and I often react a few moments to several seconds after the people around me. All this makes me incredibly nervous to be in control of an incredibly heavy piece of equipment hurtling tens of miles an hour down the road. My worst fear for driving is misjudging space and hitting a pedestrian, or not being able to react to someone else driving erratically quickly enough to avoid getting them or myself killed. My family is very nervous about my ability to be autonomous and is encouraging me to try driving anyway, that maybe with practice and experience I'll be able to drive safely. But my concerns aren't about recognizing road signs, remembering driving laws, or when to turn on my blinker. It's about judging my vehicle accurately in space when I can't even do so with my own body, and whether I will be able to react in time to the people around me if they are unpredictable or even notice I have to react at all. I don't know if it's even responsible for me to be behind a wheel, and I would absolutely hate to find out by me or someone else getting hurt because I knew I was disabled and had a gut feeling I shouldn't be responsible for a life or death matter that relies so heavily on some of my biggest challenges, and did something I felt unsafe about anyway without caring about the people who I could harm without ever wanting to. It feels selfish, and the concept of driving scares the Dickens out of me. But where I live, our public transportation is practically nonexistent and almost nothing is in reasonable walking distance of anything else, so not being able to drive is extraordinarily limiting or even dangerous. It's one of those disability challenges I've had to put on the backburner for figuring out how to deal with, while I try to just figure out how to keep myself clean and fed every day and finish my education. It's really frustrating to understand in concept the things I need to do, but struggle so much to actually execute them. Maybe because it's the idea of being incapable is so heavily tied with supposed lack of intelligence, and both of those tied with being seen as lacking value overall. Just because I understand the tasks that need to be done doesn't mean I can do them, and just because I struggle doesn't mean I lack value, but it sure is hard to remember that some days.
@@laura.bseyoga I have had a lot of incidents with police including weapons pointed at me due to having mental health problems. But then my city got CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) police who are trained to deal with crisis situations and they were much better. So I agree that some are horrible. But not all of them.
I've watched a few America react videos, and some have spoken about the police in your country, about they do what they feel like, and only come out when they want to. There have been similarities in the UK, mainly with stop and searching, where the police mainly target people that aren't white, often use the same made up answer, someone that looks like you has been going around do this, or how they can smell drugs in that persons car, or turning off their body cameras.
@@Catlily5 Exactly some do, so, why concentrate on what some do instead of making out we all rock back and forth. Is she really autistic, or is she a grifter?
I have an autistic child and would completely back this. Police are so often involved in life threatening situations and having that bit of extra information would diffuse the situation.
I doubt it personally.
Stephany should be our National representive, like a union rep. I've always said this.
Law enforcement should be more aware of autism, someone should mention this to the deputies who recently scolded me.
Being an autistic adult who had several traumatizing interactions with police, just because they supposed I had taken drugs while I was simply in cognitive or sensory overload, I would really like them to have more training about neurodevelopmental disorders as well as an optionnal identifier for ID papers.
I'm living in Montreal, Canada and have been diagnosed with ASD two years ago. My husband is a police officer and recently told me that he volunteered to participate in training aiming to raise awareness about autism amongst police officers and to learn how to recognize autistic behaviours during police interventions and to best navigate these police interventions. It's not exactly like the Oklahoma identifier, but I say it's a first good step. My husband is already quite knowledgeable about autism because of me and has really noticed the misinterpretation that some of his colleagues can be subject to in some interventions with autistic individuals. I was also very touched that he volunteered to do this training.
From the bottom of my heart, I want to say thank you for all your labour. I hope this reaches the indicated individuals to make it happen. Again, thanks!
This would be great everywhere and having law enforcement trained in mental health conditions and disabilities. Just like on the show “Switched at Birth “ the guy got harassed because he wasn’t responding and they didnt realize he was actually deaf not just being difficult
If you live in the USA and have to call the police on an autistic person or a mentally ill person ask if your city has a CIT team. This is a specially trained Crisis Intervention Team. They are trained in a calmer approach. It could save someone's life.
I am a person with ASD, as are my kids and grandkids, your house bill is really amazing and I would support it if it were in my state. This should be in every state. You have my respect and thanks.
Someone on my Autism forum said he put that on his license and now he can't get car insurance. No one will insure him.
It woukd be better to have a separate database that first responders and police have access to.
Good point
In Australia they have brought in (or are bringing in) this but there's fines if we don't declare autism on our licenses and a lot of people are afraid of discrimination.
@@Tim_G_Bennett They actually fine you if you don't declare it? That's horrible.
@@Tim_G_Bennettthere was also talk here in Aus about everyone who gets an adult diagnosis being forced to retake their driving test!
@@IdrilSilmarien At the moment it depends on which state you live in regarding if you have to report or not. I fortunately live in a state where that isn't something that you need to report.
I have thought to make a card that says, "Autistic. May go mute in tense situations." I would hand it to the officer with my license.
Thank you for posting this. This is the culmination of three years of work.
Law enforcement really needs to be educated about autism, especially the common traits to look for. It wouldn't help those who don't yet know they're autistic, but would help those who have a diagnosis a lot. Every state needs a bill like this.
We have something similar in the UK - although it's not attached to the driver's licence (and thus doesn't need to be declared to an insurer), but rather a separate card. Most police forces have their own (separate) card programme, but they all informally recognise the other forces' cards. It's not necessarily so much of an issue over here, given that most interactions with the police are significantly less confrontational and stressful (not to mention potentially dangerous) than they are in the US, but still...it's useful, even if it's just to alleviate anxiety over the _possibility_ of interacting by the police.
I've been seriously worried about this for quite some time ever since I heard about it Elijah McClain
State of Washington, US (for clarity of readers not familiar enough with the US) has an option to add a notation on a license specifying you have a developmental disability. Not sure how long they’ve had that.
(Proper) Training for medical and law enforcement personnel would be amazing.
It helps a lot. Unfortunately some are untrainable though.
I have a card to hand to the officer if I'm ever pulled over!
Thank you for everything you do. ❤
I hope it passes. I have a mistrust of authority from past bad experiences. We need this is Texas too but I also need a diagnosis of Autism to be able to use it.
I highly HIGHLY dislike the idea of a cop having access to that information. I feel like it’s absolutely NONE of their business…but at the same time what choice do we have if they don’t know how to recognize it.
Neurodivergent people shouldn't have to out ourselves to authorities just to receive fair treatment. Law enforcement should be trained not to make assumptions about people's behaviour and consider that anyone *might* be autistic until they can determine otherwise. Innocent until proven guilty. Not everyone's going to be officially diagnosed, or necessarily know themselves that they should even consider getting a diagnosis, or they might have travelled from another state or another country which lacks this special marker on their ID. The idea of having any kind of marker displaying information about neurodivergence, mental health or learning disability on official ID sounds sketchy as hell from the viewpoint of a neurodivergent queer European (British, UK) where over here the names and symbols used by the Nazis to classify people like us and mark us out as exceptional and destined for special treatment still exist in the communal memory. Arguments like, "Oh it's not accessible unless there's subpoena issued by a court", don't mean much because once the data exists them someone like Trump can pretty easily write a new law to make use of the data in ways which weren't originally intended.
I agree on the theory of what you say and I work a lot on educating people about autism. But having had several traumatizing interactions with police, I'd rather "out myself" and in fact now I have several verbal and non verbal ways to let know police I'm autistic and use them as soon asI have to interact with them. and that changed the dynamic of the interactions totally. The porblem is that I can really look like I could be dangerous, it happens quite a lot that regular people will say to their child "let's change sidewalk, that person is dangerous", only because I can't stop stimming or I'm chewing a chewable. So the same was ttrue with police. But now they interpret my stereotypic movements, my lack of eye contact and even my situatonal mutism as deficits, instead of me "being violent".
That you should pick Trump out as your target is an interesting fault on your part in multiple ways, not the least because it is believed by many that his youngest son is autistic, though I don't have a confirmed source.
@@strictnonconformist7369 trump overreacts & overreaches with power, & plenty of parents are shitty to their autistic children
Completely agree my friend. As per my comment earlier, the problem is with the police and none of this should be necessary. Unfortunately, with recruitment and training of such a low standard, the reality is we need this marker as an interim insurance against malpractice by law enforcement. Same goes for other alert card systems across the world, not just for driving. We shouldn't need to out ourselves to get equal treatment but it's a real world. Stay safe bud.
When it comes to sketchy legislation, I’d be far more worried about Biden! 😂
They don't care if someone has something illegal or not. Comes down to if safe to drive.
If not responding, how will they pull a license out?
At times, with my disorders, it is not safe to drive.
Thank you for all the hard work you do! ❤
im not in oklahoma but i'll send it to my friends there
There's too many secondary problems that would come with this solution. Having that mark on your driver's license won't make you any safer, but it will be known rapidly in the HR community and eventually the population in general and prevent people from getting and keeping jobs, because showing your ID is one of the first things you have to do when you get a job! Doesn't matter if you're good at the job or good at masking, they don't care, get the weirdo away from me. We'll get excluded from bars. When people realize what they can do with it, that they can exclude us, they'll start requiring people show ID for things they don't now just so they can use that to keep us out. Masking to get work is the only reason a lot of us aren't dead in a gutter, poor people are born with autism too and you can't expect our families to support us for years while we repeatedly appeal the government's ridiculous disability requirements in order to get a handout that enforces permanent poverty. It's work or starve on the street. Don't go making laws that will increase our insanely high unemployment rate even more.
That worries me a bit. I live on Oklahoma. Might not put that on my license.
Great point.
It's optional right?
i got an autism speaks ad on this video
🤮
😮
Content creators can't choose which ads are played during their videos. RUclips picks them.
A few years ago a mom called the police to have a mental health team come to take her autistic son to the hospital it ended with the police chasing him down an ally and shooting him as her RUNNING AWAY. People with mental illness are 12 times more likely to experience police brutality, which I think is down actually. I heard police say they are against training in how to handle mental health emergencies and special mental health teams because they should have to be therapists and the money could be put to better use on something else. I hope Okalahoma is smarter than that. This is a great idea.
The cops pointed guns at me because I was in the bathroom when a mental health worker called the cops on me. That was before they had specially trained cops in my city.
The specially trained cops: Crisis Intervention Team (CIT) cops are usually much nicer in my city. If you live in the USA ask if your city has them and ask for them to come if you call for mental health or a bad autistic meltdown. You might save someone's life.
I had a bad incident with the police before my city had specially trained police officers. The police were called on me by a mental health worker for being a danger to myself. Because I was in the bathroom when they arrived it ended up with a show of force because they could not see me before I came out.
Now my city has trained officers in the Crisis Intervention Team (CIT). They are usually much nicer than the regular police. If you live in the USA and have to call the police on a mentally ill or autistic individual ask if they have a CIT team and ask them to send them. You might save someone's life.
Yes, we have the option to have our ASD diagnosis reflected on our ID or license
What were the results? I live in Oklahoma and could benefit from this. The other night, I was overstimulated from police lights behind me. Thankfully, I was a passenger or I would have had trouble communicating and would potentially be in trouble.
or we don't want - or feel the need - to answer their nosy questions like, where have you been/where are you going etc,- it's none of your business and your questions only rise anxiety. spread the word
The OAI sounds a good idea if your Autism troubles communication and gives off unusual signals which have to be interpreted by an officer - they have certain level of 'social anxiety to deal with in a traffic stop too! But taking Stephanie's example literally; if your unable to let go of a steering wheel and 'rocking', because you're being questioned by an authority figure, you really ought to be considering if you should be in control of a motorised vehicle. Driving is far from a stress free experience, and you have a duty of reasonable regard to other's safety and wellbeing, and a capacity to drive includes a measured anticipation of others and responding to situation outside your control. .
To be honest, yeah, this is a consideration. I realize not everyone has the luxury not to drive if they want to be employed, and it gives so much autonomy. But for some people, maybe it's best not to drive. For myself, I have slow reaction time and very poor spacial awareness. I often don't notice things happening around me unless they're directly in front of me, I'm constantly bumping into things with my body, and I often react a few moments to several seconds after the people around me. All this makes me incredibly nervous to be in control of an incredibly heavy piece of equipment hurtling tens of miles an hour down the road. My worst fear for driving is misjudging space and hitting a pedestrian, or not being able to react to someone else driving erratically quickly enough to avoid getting them or myself killed.
My family is very nervous about my ability to be autonomous and is encouraging me to try driving anyway, that maybe with practice and experience I'll be able to drive safely. But my concerns aren't about recognizing road signs, remembering driving laws, or when to turn on my blinker. It's about judging my vehicle accurately in space when I can't even do so with my own body, and whether I will be able to react in time to the people around me if they are unpredictable or even notice I have to react at all. I don't know if it's even responsible for me to be behind a wheel, and I would absolutely hate to find out by me or someone else getting hurt because I knew I was disabled and had a gut feeling I shouldn't be responsible for a life or death matter that relies so heavily on some of my biggest challenges, and did something I felt unsafe about anyway without caring about the people who I could harm without ever wanting to.
It feels selfish, and the concept of driving scares the Dickens out of me. But where I live, our public transportation is practically nonexistent and almost nothing is in reasonable walking distance of anything else, so not being able to drive is extraordinarily limiting or even dangerous. It's one of those disability challenges I've had to put on the backburner for figuring out how to deal with, while I try to just figure out how to keep myself clean and fed every day and finish my education. It's really frustrating to understand in concept the things I need to do, but struggle so much to actually execute them. Maybe because it's the idea of being incapable is so heavily tied with supposed lack of intelligence, and both of those tied with being seen as lacking value overall. Just because I understand the tasks that need to be done doesn't mean I can do them, and just because I struggle doesn't mean I lack value, but it sure is hard to remember that some days.
We don't have anything like this in the UK afaik.
(Always remember ACAB to stay safe)
What is ACAB?
@@Catlily5 It's an acronym for the slang term "All Cops Are Bastards" - I'm not certain of its origin, but it's been around quite a while!
@@laura.bseyoga Well, some of them certainly are!
@@Catlily5 that has certainly been my experience!
@@laura.bseyoga I have had a lot of incidents with police including weapons pointed at me due to having mental health problems. But then my city got CIT (Crisis Intervention Team) police who are trained to deal with crisis situations and they were much better. So I agree that some are horrible. But not all of them.
I've watched a few America react videos, and some have spoken about the police in your country, about they do what they feel like, and only come out when they want to. There have been similarities in the UK, mainly with stop and searching, where the police mainly target people that aren't white, often use the same made up answer, someone that looks like you has been going around do this, or how they can smell drugs in that persons car, or turning off their body cameras.
I'm not sure how I feel about this proposed law. The intentions are good, but I can see it being abused by untrained police officers.
I don't fidget or rock back and forth. Why are you so negative about autism?
Stephanie just sits at home with her awful bf/husband & Eats eats eats, rather than get out there with other people with ASD
Some people do.
@@Catlily5 Exactly some do, so, why concentrate on what some do instead of making out we all rock back and forth. Is she really autistic, or is she a grifter?
Stephany, your size is getting concerning for health reasons. Please get healthy.
That is rude to say. That is between her and her doctors.
@@Catlily5
You must be big yourself, and it's certainly not healthy