Avoiding Unfortunate Situations

(Permanent URL: http://policeandautism.cjb.net/)

Also see Dennis' other site:
Autism Risk & Safety Management
including video clips from the new Autism & Law Enforcement Video, and additional information about Dennis' training session business.

Introduction

Law enforcement agencies in the 21st Century are embracing community policing and better education for their increasingly diverse workforce. There is also a growing interest in the global autism community to bring public awareness of autism and the people it affects to law enforcement professionals. As a parent of a young man with autism and reporter/researcher on this topic since 1991, I hope to bring you useful information about autism and the law enforcement community. Sharing critical autism recognition and response information with our law enforcement, first response, criminal justice and educational communities is my mission. The goal? Better community experiences for everyone.

I'm telling the world about our stories in the best way I can: through my books and articles, through train-the-trainer workshops for law enforcement, first responders, and educators, and through the media. Autism awareness and education for law enforcement, emergency response and criminal justice professionals is a personal, and now, professional part of my life. Public awareness--telling others about our everyday lives as families affected by autism--is a key element of my personal and professional advocacy. Positive outcomes for our loved ones can be the result when we take the time to educate others about autism spectrum disorders. I want to tell your stories, too. Let me know what they are.

Contact information

Please e-mail dennis@policeandautism.cjb.net
Or write: Dennis Debbaudt
2338 S.E. Holland Street
Port St. Lucie, FL 34952
U.S.A.
Phone: 772-398-9756

About the Website Author

Dennis Debbaudt is the author of Autism, Advocates and Law Enforcement Professionals: Recognizing and Reducing Risk Situations for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London-Philadelphia, 2002, Avoiding Unfortunate Situations Way/SAC, Detroit, Michigan, 1994, and a veteran of law enforcement in the private sector since 1977.

Dennis has reported for the Detroit News, Detroit Free Press and worked with network television current affairs programs including Granada TV's World In Action (UK), CTV's W-5 (Canada), and ABC News 20/20 (U.S.). Debbaudt's articles, workshops and conference presentations specific to autism and law enforcement are listed below.

Debbaudt is a frequent presenter at autism conferences worldwide, and is increasingly hosting train-the-trainer workshops for school districts, law enforcement training programs, and autism advocacy groups. Since 1995, he has conducted numerous workshops for law enforcement agencies including the Detroit Police Department, Michigan Department of Corrections, New Hampshire Police Academy and Sheriff's Departments throughout the United States. He has also led workshops for law enforcers in Canada and the United Kingdom.

Debbaudt recently completed a chapter on safety and risk for an upcoming (2003) book about Asperger's syndrome and adolescence edited by Liane Holliday Willey for Jessica Kingsley Publishers. Debbaudt has worked on writing grant proposals, curriculum and script development, and consults to persons affected, families, educators, law enforcers, prosecutors & defense attorneys about specific issues related to autism and law enforcement. He continues to research and report from Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Dennis, his wife, Gay, and son, Brad, reside in Port St. Lucie, Florida.

Now Booking Workshops Conferences & Trainings

Debbaudt's workshops focus on autism recognition and response; contact, perpetrator and victim trends; restraint and arrest options, dilemmas in interrogation and interview settings; school resource officer issues; model programs & cross educational opportunities.

The information is presented via PowerPoint, video and handouts. The one-day workshops are based on his exhaustive research and 12-year experience and personal involvement.

Workshops are personally designed to meet the local needs of/and educate law enforcement trainers, school resource officers, criminal justice and forensic professionals, educators and others about autism recognition, response and risk management.

To schedule a workshop or conference presentations or to inquire about fees, publications, curriculum, script and grant development projects, and case consultations, contact Dennis Debbaudt at:

dennis@policeandautism.cjb.net
Call: 772-398-9756
Write: Dennis Debbaudt Agency, 2338 S.E. Holland Street, Port St. Lucie, FL 34952, USA.

Chronological list: books and articles

Avoiding Unfortunate Situations: A Collection of Experiences, Tips and Information from and about People with Autism and Other Developmental Disabilities and Their Encounters with Law Enforcement Agencies, by Dennis Debbaudt. Detroit, Michigan: Wayne County Society for Autistic Citizens (Way/SAC). Available through Autism Society of North Carolina (ASNC) -- click 'bookstore'
Strategies For Safer Interaction within Communities, by Margaret Creedon Ph.D., Dennis Debbaudt and Michael Campbell. Open Minds, Open Doors: Proceedings of the 1996 Autism Society of America National Conference. Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Law Enforcement and Autism: A National Perspective, by Dennis Debbaudt. Advocate: The Newsletter of the Autism Society of America, May-June 1998
Avoiding Unfortunate Situations: Awareness When Shopping, by Dennis Debbaudt. The Source, A Publication of ASPEN of America (now Asperger's Syndrome Coalition of the United States, Inc.). Winter, 2000
Law Enforcement Awareness of Autism: In Memory of Calvin Champion, Jr., by Dennis Debbaudt. TASH Newsletter, August 2000
You Do Not Have the Right To Remain Silent! A Report on Advocacy Efforts for Law Enforcement Professionals' Awareness of Autism, by Dennis Debbaudt. Autism Aspergers Digest Magazine January-February 2001
Autism & Police, by Dennis Debbaudt. LINK, the Newsletter of Autism-Europe, Winter 2001
Autism & Airport Security, by Dennis Debbaudt (Fall, 2001), online at British National Autistic Society
Contact With Individuals With Autism: Effective Resolutions, by Dennis Debbaudt and Darla Rothman, Ph.D. FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, April 2001 [PDF format, 2.6 MB]
Effective Resolutions of Contacts with Autistic Individuals, by Dr. Darla Rothman and Dennis Debbaudt, Sheriff, March-April 2002
Train officers to deal with autistic students, Dennis Debbaudt was interviewed for and provided information to this report for the Maintaining Safe Schools Newsletter, LRP Publications, October 2002
Autism, Advocates and Law Enforcement Professionals: Recognizing and Reducing Risk Situations for People with Autism Spectrum Disorders, by Dennis Debbaudt, Jessica Kingsley Publishers, London UK-Philadelphia, 142 pages, ISBN # 1-85302-980-7, Copyright 2002

Conferences, Workshops, Special Projects

ASA National Conferences (North Carolina, 1995, Wisconsin, 1996, Atlanta, 2000 Indianapolis 2002)
Autism Network International (New York, 1995)
MAAP (Indiana, 1995)
American Professional Society on the Abuse of Children (Chicago 1996)
Autism Society of Wisconsin (Appleton, 1998)
Autism Society of Ohio (1998, 1999 and 2001)
ARK Autism Awareness Rally In Washington D.C. (April 2000)
Autism-Europe Congress (Glasgow, Scotland May, 2000)
National Symposium on Autism (St. Louis, Missouri, April, 2001 & April, 2002)
Autism Society of Ontario (Toronto, May 2001)
UK Workshops-Hampshire Autistic Society (Winchester), Asperger Backup Campaign (Bournemouth), SACAR (Bradford, Autism North (University of Sunderland), (September, 2001)
Autism Society of California-San Diego Police Department (October, 2001)
Autism Society of Los Angeles (March, 2002)
Autism Society of Iowa (April, 2002)
Ohio State Legislature Rally (April, 2002)
ASPEN (Asperger's Syndrome), New Jersey (May, 2002)
Mental Health Associates /Orange County, NY (Sept., 2002)
Autism Society of New Hampshire (October, 2002)
Asperger Association of New England (October, 2002)
Calcasieu Parish Louisiana School District (November, 2002)
Law enforcement trainings and train the trainer sessions since 1995 in Detroit at Metropolitan Detroit Police Academy, Wayne County and Oakland County, Michigan, Columbus, Ohio, New Orleans, Louisiana, Ocala, Jacksonville and Orlando, Florida, Kilgore, Texas, Long Island, New York, New Hampshire Police Academy, Goshen, New York, Wellesley Massachusetts Police Department, Shelby Township, Michigan Police Department
Team Project Development member, on-camera host & narrator for "Autism Awareness Video for Law Enforcement/Community Service Personnel" (1999 winner ASA Excellence In Media Award)
Curriculum Review Team member and resource for "Why Law Enforcement Needs To Recognize Autism" Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions (October, 1999). The first ever, by and for, law enforcement curriculum on autism awareness.
Cited resource for "Recognizing Special Needs: A Police Officer's Field Guide To Selected Disabilities", by the Municipal Police Officers' Education & Training Commission, (Hershey, Pennsylvania 2001)

Copyright

This site was originally created on January 1, 1999
in Detroit, Michigan.

Thank You For Visiting!