Volume 15, Number 3, Winter 2020The Need for Interdisciplinary Collaboration and Police Training on How to Interact with Diverse Individuals with Autism and Other Cognitive-Communication Disabilities AUTHOR:
ABSTRACT Although police brutality against marginalized groups of people is not a new concept, specific data surrounding incidents of individuals with disabilities is scarce. However, since 2016, police departments across the nation have been obligated to report arrest-related fatalities to the U.S. Department of Justice under penalty of loss of ten percent of their federal funding (Swaine, 2016). However, Swaine (2016) reported that even with this requirement, police have been able to avoid the repercussions of losing ten percent of their federal funding because the law has been largely ignored since being reauthorized in 2014. Thanks to a few individuals and organizations, accounts of citizen’s violent encounters with police are being documented. For example, Brian Burghart, developed “Fatal Encounters”, a growing national search engine of persons killed during interactions with police. Also, the Guardian’s “The Counted”, represents an ongoing effort to document all deaths caused by law enforcement officers. Likewise, The Washington Post, has quantified individuals with mental health and intellectual disabilities who were shot and/or killed by police. Similarly, thanks should be given to the Ruderman Foundation and Elinoam Abramov for analyzing the above databases and numerous other resources resulting in an overwhelming numbers of cases being systematically reviewed and compiled to develop a tangible idea of the intersectionality between disability and police violence and how other factors such as race, gender, and socioeconomic status can multiply risks of violent and fatal encounters with law enforcement. DOI: DOWNLOAD FULL ARTICLE |