Autism awareness training for law enforcement officers: a pilot study

Purpose The purpose of this study was to pilot a research-based autism training session for law enforcement officers (LEOs), test the Police Self-Efficacy for Autism (PSEA) scale as a measurement tool for the session and provide a preliminary examination of brief training. Design/methodology/approach This study utilized a pre-post survey approach in which participants completed the PSEA scale pre- and post-training to measure the relationship between the training and self-efficacy scores. Findings Results show a positive relationship between brief autism-specific training and officers’ self-efficacy scores across items and subscales. All four subscales and seven of thirteen items demonstrated statistical significance. Originality/value Though emerging legislation requires officers to document perceived developmental disability in specific interactions (e.g. California Senate Bill 882), officers report limited knowledge regarding characteristics of developmental disabilities such as autism. This pilot effort showed the promise of brief research-based professional learning for officers using pre- and post-training evaluation on the PSEA scale.