Getting stopped by the police for no reason

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I never used to have problems. Never.

In Vancouver a couple of years ago I was pulling invasive species by myself in a park with permission, and a local man called the police on me twice. The first time was fine - the police officers were very nice, asked to see ID, and let me get back to what I was doing - but the second time the man went with the police officer to shut me down, and the police officer was not nice and told me to go home for the day, even though my name was clear (he called it in). I was shaken, and suspect that my being autistic contributed to me being seen as engaging in "suspicious behaviour". (The man who called the police looked even more suspicious, if you ask me.)

Then I started going barefoot. In Vancouver last winter, the police pulled up alongside once, rolled down the car window, and asked if I was ok. That was the only police attention I got in Vancouver for going barefoot. Yay!

Then I moved to Montreal. I've been stopped by the police seven times now (since last May) and they say it's because I'm barefoot. But other barefooters don't get stopped like this. They may have the kind of experience like I had in Vancouver, where the police ask if they're ok, but that's it. Here, the police get out of the car, ask for identification, and one of them runs my ID through the system while the other asks me a bunch of questions to make sure I'm not some psych ward runaway. It's horrible.

I was stopped once in July, once in September, once in November (when I was carrying a 30 lb chair home from the Salvation Army - that time was fun), and four times in the last few weeks (but not at all for the first month and a half of winter, thank goodness). Three of the times I was stopped, they got a call about me and had to investigate. The other four times they were just out patrolling and saw me. (Once was twice in the same day, and I think it was the same two police officers - they didn't have time to check my ID the first time because they had to do something else so I guess they were looking for me the second time.)

The last time I was stopped, they made me miss my bus.

I repeat, other people who go barefoot don't get stopped by the police like this. (I checked.) So I think it's because I'm autistic. Does this happen much to other autistic people? And if so, where do you live, and what are your demographics? (I'm white, female, age 46, and in Montreal, Canada.)

PS I don't have much in the way of internet access at home, so I'll be able to follow replies, but may not be able to comment again without trekking into the library again like I did today. Just so you know. Vent away!

Write a letter to the editor of the city newspaper. Maybe they'll do a story on you.

I stagger when I walk due to a combination of flat fleet, a bad ankle, and issues with my balance. A Depew cop saw me walking down the sidewalk and thought I was drunk or on some kind of drug. He pulled up infront of me blocking the sidewalk. He started asking me if I had been drinking or doing anytype of drugs so I told him no so he asked to look in my eyes to check my pupils. I have a hard time with eye contact so I could not stare into his eyes so he thought I was avoiding eye contact because I was on drugs. He asked me to move to the front of the vehicle, when I asked why he kicked his door open to force me back. He rushed out the car grabbing me by the arm and thats when I blurted out I am autistic. That calmed him down enough for to explain why he needed me to move to the front of the car so he could see me pupils dialate. So after I covered one eye and he saw saw the pipil dialate he said I could go and he added that I should tell officers right at the get go that I am autistic. I also blamed the staggering on my high blood pressure medicine so he would not think I was incompitant to walk to the store bymyself.

I have had cops ask me if I was alright in walking to the store in snowy white out conditions. But that is their job to search out suspicious persons or people that might be in some kind of distress so they could help them or let the suspicious person know they are being watched. A cop pulled a guy over for walking at night on our street wearing all black and carrying a large hockey bag. The guy reaked of marijuna so the cop searched his bag and it contained burglary tools and small electronics and lap tops. The break in call came when the cop was interrogating the guy at his squad car. If you ask me thats pretty good service. They had the stolen merchandice in police hands 15 minutes after the break in and before the homeowner called it in.

I have never been harassed by the police. I experienced a false arrest once. But my husband used to deal with this all the time as well when he was young. He worked late and he be walking home and officers thought he was under the age of the curfew. But there was one officer who used to stop him all the time. It was the same officer and he knew him but he kept stopping him and then one day he threatened to report him if he doesn't quit. He never bothered him again.

He figured this happened because one he was big for his age and it be late at night so they got suspicious. Two he looked so young so they thought he was in his teens and still in high school. But he doesn't get this issue anymore. Maybe because he is older now so he doesn't look that young anymore and lot of people are overweight these days.

It's happened to me consistently since my early teens. I'm female, white, 30, live in Vermont but grew up in California.

If you are going barefoot in winter and it's a warm day, you might not get stopped. If you do, then I'd say the cops are being a bit to invasive. If you want to go barefoot in the warmth, its your right to do it, unless it's a private space of some kind where they want you to wear shoes.
If it's a really cold winter's day and you have no shoes on, the cops are probably worried you will get frostbite and they want to help.

Aspies and other people with differences do seem to trigger suspicion in police. Whether it is body language, being alone, not saying the right things when questioned, or other weird behavior; we seem to stick out like a sore thumb. As a teen, I often felt that in their eyes I was guilty of something and had to prove my innocence, ie. I was just a normal citizen. I think aspies are more vulnerable in that they are more likely to be victimized or targeted by criminal behavior, and we are more likely to raise red flags in the eyes of law enforcement. The internet is full of stories of misunderstanding and tragedies between police and autistic people.

I go back and forth on how many of the problems faced by people on the spectrum are because of disability or from being a minority. I don't think it is discrimination, but a failure to realize that different behavior doesn't equal abnormal behavior.

Unfortunately, if your cops are like us, they'll tend to make snap judgements. This is becaus in most situations, it's necessary and usually correct - if someone is acting in a suspicious or unusual manner, they're either up to something or in need of help. But for people who are different (but innocent) you're going to attract police attention just by being different and standing out from the norm.

This really is a typical cop thing. They are looking for something out of the ordinary. When I was in my 20s I used to go jogging. I would wear sweatshirt and sweatpants I would always go jogging before work. The odd thing is my shift at work changed so I was jogging at a different time. I live in a city so I was on public roads, sidewalks, and crossing parking lots.
This all happened in the same location only the times were changed.
When I was out jogging 5:30am I was never stopped.
When I started jogging at 10:30pm I was stopped almost every time.
I was never cited and was not doing anything wrong but the cops always wanted to chat with me. Where are you going? What are doing? etc.

One time, when I was jogging on a public road in a residential neighborhood, someone called the cops on me for "suspicious behavior".
I happen to be wearing a black sweatshirt and black sweatpants at the time. I did have a reflective vest on though. It was about 11:30pm on a Friday and I was out jogging.
The cops stopped me and advised me that although I wasn't doing anything wrong, it might be best if I leave the neighborhood.
That same cop stopped me the next day because someone had called again about "suspicious behavior".
I wasn't upset with the cops because they were professional, but it was just the hassle of it all.
After about 2-3 months of this I just quit jogging altogether.

Well I rarely ever go outside, but in London, pretty much everyone I know has been randomly stopped by the police before.

I should note also that while a small number of times there were obvious reasons cops stopped me (trespassing, meltdowns, that kind of thing) most of the time it is not like that at all. It's at the point where leaving the house by myself is not something I'm usually comfortable with.

I also freak out when people ask me, "Are you okay?" Because often people who ask that call the cops even if I say yes.

Many times cops think that (depending on age) I have escaped from a special school, group home, other institutional type setting, and try to get me back there, even though this for obvious reasons doesn't work.

Except for the one time that I escaped from a day program. I ran out because a fight had broken out and it freaked me out. They were so busy calming down the fight that they didn't notice I was gone until they saw my shoes on the floor and me not in them, and by that point I was quite a ways away. This is my mother's description of that time: "I remember the day program incident and this is from my viewpoint as a parent. According to the day staff the violence was sudden and unexpected and did not personally involve you but witnessing it triggered your PTSD and you ran right out of your shoes. I remember they called your father and said you were just suddenly gone. Your shoes were there and a shawl but not you. They had looked for 15 minutes and couldn’t find you anywhere. By the time your father arrived it had been 45 minutes. He immediately had them call the police for help in finding you fearing that running scared like that in a city you might run right into something horrific or someone who might harm you. Two hours later we got a phone call that you were at the police station and had been “found” miles away. We rushed down and I have to admit the picture you see on television of a found child with ice cream cone in hand was the image I anticipated. I will never forget being led back to a back room where two very large armed policeman were sitting outside a locked room. You were inside that locked room, cold and hungry and thirsty and barefoot shivering without a blanket or water or a kind word. I was shocked."

I think I was about 17 when that one happened. That one actually made sense, though, given that I was actually missing in that case and not just walking in a normal situation. Most times when police get interested in me, it's just a normal situation, nothing disturbing going on, no sign that I've actually been in trouble anywhere. Often they don't believe that I can think, reason, understand them, etc. and that doesn't help. But given that I'm white and female I think that may be the only reason I haven't been shot or otherwise brutalized at these times. I mean I've been treated quite badly, sometimes causing physical damage to my body, but not the terrible things I've heard from and about autistic people who are, say, black and male, and thus presumed violent and dangerous.

The times I've actually needed help, there were usually no police to be found. Like the time I got cornered by a pack of wild dogs in the middle of the night and had to wait it out and hope that if I didn't show fear or aggression they would eventually get bored and go away. And one time I actually went into a police station at night looking for help and only found a completely messed-up phone system that I could not use because I could not speak or really understand what they were asking me to do. But generally I think going to the police for help is more dangerous to me than not, so that was the only time I really tried it.

I live in fear of those situations I hear about all the time where police say "stop" or "put your hands up" and the person is deaf or cognitively impaired and doesn't respond (or doesn't respond fast enough) and gets shot at. My comprehension and response time can both be very slow when present at all. I hope I never encounter that sort of situation, because if I do, it may be my last situation in life.

There was one time also when the police found my phone number in my wallet and kept calling it over and over expecting for a staff person to pick up because they couldn't imagine that I lived alone. (With a lot of support, but alone, and with no staff there at that time or I would have been with them.)

One time I sat outside of my apartment building because it felt like a nice day to be outside, and I had a staff person coming so I figured I'd wait outside instead of waiting indoors. So I sat out by the entrance, and got the "Are you okay?" treatment several times. Each time, I nodded conspicuously. Eventually, the cops showed up. They kept asking me again and again questions like where do you live, what is your name, and so on, and they didn't seem to believe or even notice my answers because they just kept asking and asking. Then more cops arrived. And I still have no clue what they were looking for, but fortunately my staff arrived right then and pulled up next to me and explained who I was to the cops. That time, they believed her. I don't know what was with the repeated questioning of me. That was pretty much the last time I allowed myself into a situation where the cops could get at me alone.

I hate cities.

I've never been stopped or harassed by police officers. I'm a white, articulate 5'3 woman who's very comfortable around them so I figure this has a lot to do with it. I don't fit any of the "profiles" in appearance or behavior. I've actually gotten favors (warnings instead of citations, looking the other way when I had an issue with my license, always going above and beyond to help me with my idiot ex-husband, etc).

I also go Geocaching. This is a hobby that involves a handheld GPS. You receive coordinates for a specific location where a box containing items and a logbook has been hidden. You attempt to find the container, sign the logbook, and then sign a log online (where you got the coordinates) with a short note about your experience. It's legal and a lot of fun. Imagine coming across someone who's poking through bushes, looking around trees, and pacing back and forth. Now watch this person pull out an ammo box! It can be very alarming for people who don't know about Geocaching! Geocaching containers have been blown up by bomb squads because reports of a bomb scare were called in by people who didn't know any better!

So, I have been interrupted by police officers and by citizens wanting to know what I'm doing. With a police officer, I am more than willing to explain Geocaching. It depends on someone's demeanor whether or not I'm willing to go into it with them or if I just lie to get them to leave me alone. State Parks require a permit to hide a Geocaching container so the park ranger will stop and have a chat with you. If you're having trouble finding it, he'll give some encouragement and reassure you that it isn't missing because he checked on it.

I don't think the police officers can tell that I have AS. I think they can tell I'm a geek.

I say that the next time you're in a public park, bring a written statement from the park that granted your authorization to be there, including contact name and number. This will substantiate proof for noisy neighbors who can't bear the thought of someone out there doing something that has nothing to do with them and simply must have the police stop them at once. As far as the barefoot thing... I can't understand why they would be stopping you so much over it if barefoot living is a normal subculture thing there.

But I will tell you that one thing we discuss in both Geocaching and photography is that the presence you give sends a stronger message to other people than anything you say. Make eye contact, shake someone's hand, smile, speak directly and clearly... all behaviors that communicate that you are honest and upfront. Most of all, act like you belong there. As aspies and auties, we can retreat within ourselves and not realize that we're giving the exact opposite message... that we don't belong, that we're different, that we're in our own little world. When you act like you belong where you are and are supposed to be doing exactly what you're doing, people are less likely to question you about it, including law enforcement. Confidence is not failsafe but it does make a difference. I'd practice in the mirror and with friends being confident in different scenarios where you'd be confronted so, when you are, you're prepared.

If people are constantly calling you in, it sounds like you went from a more accepting geographic area to one where people's suspicion and judgement levels (as a whole) have increased.

What is normal in California will get you in big trouble in Kansas, for example.

I've never had a policeman stop me before in my life. I had a really cute policeman smile to me once, but that's not what we're talking about here.