On the evening of Monday, 11^th November, a seventeen-year-old girl was arrested, handcuffed, and put in the back of a police car. There were two officers present, and one sat with her in the back. At some point in the journey, the driver pulled the car over onto the hard shoulder of the M5 motorway, something which should only happen in an emergency. Somehow, the girl, handcuffed, managed to escape the back seat of the car, then ran across the motorway carriageway, climbed over the barrier, and was tragically hit by a car and killed on the other side. Yesterday I read that the girl was autistic.

Questions flooded my mind: Why did the car pull over? Why did the girl run? Why weren’t the security locks in the back of the car switched on? Why was the girl arrested? Was she lost? Did someone try to take advantage of her? Was she scared? These are obviously matters for the police to investigate. Apparently correct procedures may not have been followed and the police force involved have referred themselves to The Independent Office for Police Conduct (IOPC).

I don’t know the answers to these questions, but I have an autistic child and an imagination that works overtime, which can be exhausting and emotionally draining.

I ponder:

A seventeen-year-old girl on a night out. She doesn’t “look” autistic. (What does an autistic person look like anyway?) Something happens on the night out which upsets her. She doesn’t respond calmly. There’s a disturbance while she melts down. She is angry. She is dysregulated.  She has lost control of her ability to reason. She needs someone to co-regulate and support her, to help her calm down. The police run in. They see only disorder and aggression. They arrest her with force, causing her to melt down further. They cuff her and shove her in the back of a car. One of them sits next to her.

She is scared.

She is overwhelmed.

She has no familiar adult with her. Maybe she wants her mum.

She is still dysregulated.

Maybe they shout at her to calm down.

One officer starts driving. Where are they taking her? What’s happening? She doesn’t know. She doesn’t understand.

She panics and melts down further.

It’s fight or flight. She is not in control.

Maybe she becomes aggressive with the officer in the back. Maybe that’s why the car is pulled over.

The car stops.

Fight or flight.

She tries the door. It’s open. She runs, still handcuffed, terrified, with all her mental faculties impaired by panic.

It didn’t end well.

It rarely does.

I’ve seen enough TV documentaries and dramas to know how the police treat “criminals” when they arrest them. They tend to fight force with force.

But perhaps this girl wasn’t a criminal. Perhaps she was just a teenage girl arrested for a misdemeanour. Perhaps she was just an autistic child arrested for having an autistic meltdown.

My heart is scared. This could be my daughter in ten years.

The police have got to do better. The world has got to do better. We must learn how to deal with people in a way that doesn’t exacerbate the situation. We need less bulls in china shops and more training and understanding about how to calm people down and defuse emotionally charged circumstances.

I realise I’m just speculating and imagining the possibilities. But you can see how the situation may have developed.

I am sad for this girl. I grieve for her parents and any siblings. What a tragic loss of life!

I hope there is a thorough investigation. I hope that sincere apologies are made. I hope there is better training in the police force as a result. I hope for a change in culture in the way disabled people are treated in these situations. I hope. And I pray.

Written by Jennifer Johnson

November 29^th, 2024