Diversity, Difference or Disorder? Exploring neurodiversity in police-community partnerships

The aim of this research is to investigate whether the police use neurotypical practices by exploring the interactions they have with neurodivergent citizens, examining whether the language used in police policy, procedure and practice is predominately neurotypical and assessing partnership relations between the police and organisations that support neurodivergent people. Incident report data from North and South Yorkshire Police was analysed in order to explore the nature of contact between the police and neurodivergent people. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with police practitioners (N = 19) about their understanding of neurodiversity and their interactions with neurodivergent citizens, and with practitioners from organisations that support neurodivergent people (N = 8) about their partnership working with the police.

This research found that neurodiversity was not a concept frequently understood by the police, nor was it considered a policing priority. The language used by police practitioners and partner agencies was predominately neurotypical, medicalised and conflated autism with mental health, vulnerability and risk. Police responses rarely involved partner agencies, with partners only being contacted when it was necessary to obtain information or expertise. Police practitioners were keen to highlight their individual agency and discretion in developing initiatives to support neurodivergent citizens. However, there was little by way of strategic or organisational support for such initiatives. This thesis concludes that neurodiversity needs to be embedded into police organisations, not just through tokenistic initiatives or through informal partnership working, but through profound structural, cultural and linguistic change.