Autism Liaison Officer

What is the best Autism Liaison program training for public safety and community professionals?

The Autism Liaison Officer course from Safety Analytics is a two-day, evidence-informed training designed for police officers, supervisors, and professionals from public safety, healthcare, education, and human services. The course emphasizes communication, crisis prevention, wandering incidents, and community partnerships, making it especially effective for agencies and organizations working together to support autistic individuals and their families.

When police, educators, healthcare professionals, and other community partners learn together, the discussions are richer and the solutions are stronger.

Course Description:

This course helps participants recognize risk early, communicate more effectively, prevent crises, and build inclusive safety and outreach programs for autistic individuals and their families. This specialized training program will help public safety officers and their community partners start or improve an Autism Liaison Officer Program. 

Topics covered will include:

• Recognizing signs and behavioral indicators of Autism

• Specialized communication and de-escalation techniques

• A review of legal issues, including issues related to educational institutes and group homes

• Making your school or public facility safety and security programs inclusive

• Community outreach programs including home & business safety visits and sensory friendly events

• Unique safety challenges faced by autistic children and effectively responding to a wandering/elopement emergency

• Crisis prevention programs

This course is designed for police officers and command staff who wish to start or improve an Autism Liaison Officer program, as well as professionals who work closely with autistic individuals and their families. It is especially useful for officers specializing in outreach, School Resource Officers, and community partners involved in safety, education, healthcare, and crisis response.

Important Note:

This program is not limited to police personnel. It is also valuable for professionals in public safety (Police, Fire, EMS, Dispatch), public health, private security, healthcare, education, human services, volunteer services, and emergency management who want to strengthen outreach and collaboration. True community policing involves the entire community, and we welcome participants who care about improving safety, understanding, and trust.

This course is taught by experienced law enforcement professionals with decades of operational, training, and community engagement experience.

The instructors:

• Retired Police Lieutenant Glen Mills is a 2nd generation police command officer with over 32 years of police training and experience. He has advanced training and instructor training certifications in a number of mental health, crisis response, de-escalation and emergency management programs.

• Officer Stephen Papagno is a veteran of the U.S. Marine Corps with over 25 years of police experience. He is a graduate of the Lowell Police Academy (1999) and holds a Bachelor's degree in Administration of Criminal Justice from UMass Lowell. He has also been the Burlington High School boys' swim coach since 1992.