In a Los Angeles County sheriff’s training room in the City of Industry, deputies recently strapped on prism glasses, clanged cowbells, and tried to scribble notes using their non-dominant hands. The point of the chaos is not humiliation, but simulation: brief drills that mimic sensory overload and communication breakdowns so deputies can practice dialing down their own volume, simplifying commands, and stripping away extra noise. Trainers say that a deliberate pause and cleaner instructions can be the difference between a volatile encounter and a routine call.
Hands-on exercises teach deputies to slow down
Running the session was Kate Movius, founder of the consultancy Autism Interaction Solutions. She paired the sensory experiments with practical tools deputies can actually carry on patrol. Her message was straightforward: minimize lights and noise where possible, lean on whiteboards or communication cards, and, when tactically feasible, give a person as long as 20 seconds to process a question before repeating it. The methods and the City of Industry training itself were detailed by the Los Angeles Times.
Why slowing down matters
The number of children identified with autism has climbed in recent decades. The CDC’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network estimates that in 2022, about 1 in 31 eight-year-olds were identified with autism, according to the CDC. As that population grows, first responders are more likely to encounter people whose stress responses can look, to an untrained eye, like defiance, mental illness or intoxication. Research has found that autistic adults often describe confusing or negative encounters with police, and a qualitative study documents repeated stories of stops and misinterpretations by officers (NCBI).
Local tragedies pushed change
Calls for better training did not appear out of nowhere. High-profile shootings involving people with developmental disabilities have pushed the issue into public view and into county briefings. Coverage of the 2021 LASD shooting that left Isaias Cervantes paralyzed, the 2024 fatal shooting of 15-year-old Ryan Gainer and the April 2025 Pocatello shooting of 17-year-old Victor Perez helped spark new discussions about training and policy inside Los Angeles County. Local outlets closely tracked the legal fallout, settlements and protests that followed each incident (LAist; ABC7; The Independent).
Advocates warn training can't be the only fix
Not everyone is convinced that a few hours of roll-call training will undo years of harmful encounters. Judy Mark, president of Disability Voices United, told trainers she stopped offering officer workshops after the Cervantes shooting and now advises families in crisis to call medical responders instead of law enforcement when they can. Her stance reflects broader skepticism that brief courses, without structural change, are enough to prevent tragedy. Mark’s comments appear in coverage of the Industry trainings, and Disability Voices United highlights her long record of advocacy and training work (Los Angeles Times; Disability Voices United).
City of Industry and LASD build training capacity
The City of Industry has teamed up with LASD’s Mental Evaluation Team and outside consultants to host the autism-focused sessions and to roll out sensory kits for deputies in the field. Each kit is a small grab bag of tools: noise-dampening headphones, whiteboards, communication cards and fidget toys meant to redirect energy and reduce overload. County officials have also opened a regional MET training facility where deputies can run immersive scenarios, according to city announcements and local coverage (City of Industry; ABC7).
Training programs vary nationwide
Los Angeles is not alone in trying to rethink how officers approach autistic people. Across the country, police and fire agencies tap an assortment of programs, from short simulations that involve local families to multi-session academy curricula run by hospital autism centers, nonprofits and private consultants. Autism Interaction Solutions offers the condensed, scenario-based sessions used in the City of Industry, while hospital-based programs and larger nonprofits have developed longer courses aimed at building best practices into regular in-service training (Autism Interaction Solutions; Johns Hopkins/All Children’s).
What experts say about policy
Experts in both policing and disability rights say that real progress will require more than a one-time workshop. They argue that autism-focused training should be measured, repeated and paired with mental-health co-response models. The idea is not new: federal guidance urging autism-aware policing has been circulating for decades, and the FBI published a training bulletin on the issue in 2001. Advocates now push departments to adopt formal policies, data-driven evaluation and routine partnerships with mental-health professionals to lower the risk of violent outcomes. The FBI bulletin is summarized in national criminal-justice resources, and disability groups have called for systemic reforms after recent fatal encounters (OJP/NCJRS; Autistic People of Color Fund).
For now, Los Angeles County’s MET center and its local partners are continuing to run trainings and distribute sensory kits, even as advocates press for deeper changes to how crises are handled. Families looking for guidance can find resources and advocacy contacts through organizations such as Disability Voices United and through official CDC pages that outline autism prevalence and available supports (Disability Voices United; CDC).
