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The community support network that works with the autistic community recognizes that interactions with the police are often fatal or traumatic rather than supportive. How can we change this? By utilizing Cognitive psychology, more specifically, the Self Memory System to address the processes that allow for the formation and maintenance of bias. In doing so, we can create programs that actively work to un-due these assumptions. Having a better understanding of these mechanics can help to create and enact real behavioral changes that can reduce undesirable interactions between the autistic community and the police. “We strongly believe that bringing behavior analysts into the conversation…can help meet these optimization goals “(Machado & Lugo, 2021), In order to accomplish this, I am going to focus on the Self Memory System(SMS) as it is relevant to the goals that we are setting here to improve interactions between police officers and the autistic community.

The SMS explains the interactions between the autobiographical memory and the working self. Autobiographical memory(AM)can be explained as all of the experiences and knowledge that form your idea of self.  “Autobiographical memory contains autobiographical knowledge, e.g. personal factual knowledge and cultural knowledge, such as the history of our times”(Conway & Loveday, 2015,p.574).

What will be important for later is quickly touching on how this information that has been accumulated is recalled. This can be done either consciously or unconsciously but regardless follow the same process, for now, the difference that is important to make is that cues are stronger for conscious processes. Regardless, memories are recalled when something in the environment cues it to be recalled. Essentially, “autobiographical memory is then a complex multilayered distributed knowledge base in which cues constantly cause patterns of activation, some of which may stabilize into memories”(M. A. Conway & Loveday, 2015). Meaning that unless called upon and stabilized over time this system is a network of bits and pieces of information that have an influence over our day to day lives. Why this matters here is that the working self takes this and controls to an extent what information activates and does so as to not  “disrupt current goal processing by turning attention to the pattern of activation in the AM knowledge base and away from other attention focused activities”(Conway & Loveday, 2015,p.575). Additionally, it is still believed by Martin A. Conway and Christopher W. Pleydell-Pearce in their model of the SMS that this still occurs unconsciously.

The working self is a model by which the constraints and goals of an individual are organized to help control cognitive and behavioral processes. Within the working self, there are three domains. The three domains are as follows “: the actual self (some approximately accurate representation of one’s self, perhaps, even the system’s mental model of itself), the ideal self (what the self aspires to), and the ought self (the self one should be as specified by one’s parents, educators, other significant persons, and society generally).”(M. Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000,p.266). These domains exist to maintain this idea of self that you hold in mind as a stable identity. This comes from what you have seen and how you imagine you will continue to grow. This sense of stability in the self is “grounded in autobiographical memory. The autobiographical knowledge base limits the range and types of goals that a healthy individual can realistically hold”(M. Conway & Pleydell-Pearce, 2000,p.266).

How goals are formed then are based in contextually relevant information and the working self does an assessment. What this assessment may look like is analyzing the likelihood of completing a goal based on previous success at this or similar goals and analyzing motivations. For example, if we are looking to change our sleeping patterns one might call on past experiences of having done just that and whether it was effective or not. If we run with this example then let’s say yes you have changed your sleep patterns previously and you were able to do it short term and you have a list of things you did to accomplish this goal. You then have the autobiographical knowledge that informs your ability to change your sleep schedule and steps you can take which gives you the confidence to know that this goal is realistic. The working self is analyzing this and noting that this is reasonable and informs steps to take to make the goal achievable again.

Now that you have a better understanding of the self memory system I am going to break it down into the roles that it plays at the individual level and at the situational level as relevant to improving interactions. At the situational level, your interactions can be impacted by a number of factors, one of the most important is your familiarity with the community being served. The unfamiliarity of a community can mean that what information you may have maybe that of a stereotype or prejudicial. In A Behavioral Analysis of Two Strategies to Eliminate Racial Bias in Police Use of Force. Behavior Analysis in Practice by Machado and Lugo the authors talk about what prejudice is. They refer to prejudice using (Seitz, 2011) definition that it is  “ not the burden of anyone person or group. Rather, prejudice is a social problem that envelops cities, countries, and continents. It impacts the world(as cited in A Behavioral Analysis of Two Strategies to Eliminate Racial Bias in Police Use of Force. Behavior Analysis in Practice,2021,p.4)

So to help alleviate potential forms of prejudice, education on autistic individuals should be made common knowledge. For example, “ ASD behaviors like eye-contact avoidance, not responding to commands, or reacting differently to sounds, lights, and commotion, may be mistaken for defiance, non-compliance or drug/alcohol use”(Meet The Police | National Autism Association, n.d.). In relation to that, “individuals with ASD will have seven times more contacts with law enforcement during their lifetimes than the general population” (Curry, Posluszny, & Kraska, 1993, as cited by Meet The Police,n.d.,p.1). Thus when this confrontation occurs and the knowledge of ASD is not present this can prove very dangerous for the individual with ASD. Especially if that individual has other identities that come with their own prejudice. The following statistics from Machado and Lugo highlights a pattern that has become common knowledge in police interactions.

More recently, DeGue et al. (2016) and Nix et al. (2017) examined deaths involving police officers reported from facilities across the United States. DeGue et al. reported that 89% of the 812 incidents reviewed involved a BIPOC victim, and 86% of BIPOC victims were shot fatally while unarmed. Nix et al. found similar results with around 50% of the 990 incidents reviewed involving a BIPOC victim. Sixty-six percent of those victims were also shot while unarmed.(4,Mychal A. Machado and Ashley M. Lugo)

The point I am trying to highlight here is that there are a significantly higher amount of interactions amongst autistic individuals and the police than the general public and that can prove dangerous due to lack of information on what ASD is and how it manifests. Which in turn can also go along with misconceptions and preconceived notions that are held in regards to other identities at play and  how that affects decision making processes. In order to work towards improving the results of these interactions comes from broadening the understanding of underserved communities. Here we can utilize the ideas behind developing cultural competence and utilize it at a base level for developing a broader understanding of different cultures and additionally use principles of it for identities not typically covered in cultural competency such as ability and neurodivergence. The process of developing these skills is a lifelong process and not one with set end goals. “A culturally competent individual is one who can consume knowledge about policies, attitudes, traditions, and history of diverse cultures, and then adequately apply that knowledge in a way that promotes the highest level of equity for corresponding cultures” (Betancourt et al., 2002, as cited in Towards the Development of Antiracist and Multicultural Graduate Training Programs in Behavior Analysis,p.7). Developing these skills  can improve how different behaviors are conceptualized and in turn can reduce less desirable outcomes.

To bring it back to the SMS, we have the different domains of self conception in regard to the working self. Again those being the actual, the ideal, and the ought. In order to keep some coherence of these versions of self there has to be evidence from the AM that that is the case. As an officer then that may say autistic individuals 7x more than people who do not hold that identity, how are the goals and motivations that you have as an officer and as a person met in a way that keeps these individuals safe. To answer this question we have to look at whether or not you feel you have an adequate enough understanding of the autistic community to recognize how members of that community may respond to your presence and what your role is when interacting with them.