About six weeks after a 13-year-old boy with autism was shot by Salt Lake City Police, the city’s first responders have partnered with two prominent members of the community to improve how they are trained in interacting with people who have sensory needs.
The Salt Lake City Police Department announced Thursday that it, along with the fire department and 911 dispatch, are teaming up with Utah Jazz forward Joe Ingles and his wife Renae — whose 4-year-old son, Jacob, has autism — to institute a program aimed at “instilling understanding, acceptance, and empathy in the City’s first responders toward those who have sensory needs.”
“It is my sincere hope that the Salt Lake City Police Department is known for being the best-trained and well-equipped department to respond with empathy, compassion and the necessary skills, particularly when interacting with those who are the most vulnerable.” — Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown
The training will be done by an organization called KultureCity, of which Joe and Renae Ingles are board members. KultureCity aims to be “the nation’s leading nonprofit on sensory accessibility and acceptance for those with invisible disabilities.”
Salt Lake City Police Chief Mike Brown shared during a press conference Thursday that roughly 1 in 6 people have an invisible disability such as autism or PTSD that is not necessarily visually apparent. He said that from July 1, 2019 to June 30, 2020, his department responded to approximately 138,000 calls, meaning he figures as many as 23,000 could have come from people with such disabilities.
“With that level of potential contact, we cannot afford not to do this training,” Brown said. “It is my sincere hope that the Salt Lake City Police Department is known for being the best-trained and well-equipped department to respond with empathy, compassion and the necessary skills, particularly when interacting with those who are the most vulnerable.”
Once the training is complete, the Police Department would become the first such department in the country to be to be Certified Sensory Inclusive by KultureCity.
Brown also encouraged people to voluntarily register on the department’s Autism Safe Registry, where they can provide information about the needs of the people first responders may encounter at an address.
Joe Ingles said he was aggressive in reaching out to Brown and Salt Lake City Mayor Erin Mendenhall after the Sept. 4 shooting of Linden Cameron by officers, which gained national attention.
“Probably annoyed them a little bit too much about it, but it was something I’m so passionate about and something that I just felt was necessary,” Ingles said.
Ingles said the incident affected him and his wife deeply.
“The fact that we want to stay here as long as possible, that could have easily been a situation that Jacob could be in,” he said. “It was the reason I reached out to these guys.”
Calling the incident “a tragedy in our city,” Mendenhall thanked Ingles for taking the initiative to get the process started.
“It’s a significant move, and it’s helping us to become more of the city that we must become for all of us, not only for those with sensory needs and invisible disabilities,” she said.
KultureCity will bring occupational therapists, behavior therapists and “other members of the medical community” to Salt Lake City in November for the training. The training will take place at Vivint Arena, where the Jazz play, and will consist of one-hour learning sessions, followed by testing.
Once trained, first responders will retest annually for certification, and new hires will also undergo the training.
“We are very honored and excited to work with the Salt Lake City Police Department,” KultureCity founder and CEO Julian Maha said in a statement. “We are appreciative that SLCPD, and specifically Chief Brown, is stepping up to really move his department in a direction of understanding, acceptance, and inclusion of those with invisible disabilities and sensory needs.”
Mendenhall said it was “impossible to speculate” on whether or not the Sept. 4 incident could have turned out differently had officers had this training, but “absolutely our hope is that this training will have an impact on the way future similar interactions happen with Salt Lake City Police department, fire department and 911.”