Raleigh Police Host Pancakes With Autism Families, Expand Officer Training

The man standing at the front of Raleigh's police training room carries a credential no certification program issues: Dustin Chandler of the Interaction Advisory Group spent years in law enforcement, currently works as an EMT, and is raising a child with an intellectual and developmental disability. That combination of professional credibility and lived experience is central to why the Raleigh Police Department chose him to lead what Chief Rico Boyce has made one of the department's defining 2026 priorities.

RPD hosted "Pancakes with Police" Thursday morning, bringing together autism families, community resource organizations, and officers for a breakfast event timed to Autism Awareness and Acceptance Month. The gathering was also the occasion for the third and fourth rounds of structured officer training through Chandler's organization, the Interaction Advisory Group, following earlier sessions completed in January 2026. The North Carolina Council on Developmental Disabilities is formally funding and coordinating the effort, with a stated goal of training the entire department and delivering at least one community safety session.

Major Eric Goodwin, who oversees community impact and engagement for RPD, put the stakes directly: "It's important because everyone deserves to be served in a way that generates those outcomes." The department confirmed more than half of its officers will complete the program.

The training builds on a framework tested in August 2025, when an NCCDD-backed pilot brought 34 officers and cadets from 12 law enforcement agencies across North Carolina together for a four-hour session focused on communication and de-escalation. Chandler described IAG's approach in that earlier session: "The goal wasn't to tell officers how to police, but to challenge them and give them [strategies]." In practice, that means helping officers read behavioral cues that can be mistaken for non-compliance or aggression, and adjust communication pace and tone before a situation escalates.

For families wanting something tangible from Thursday's event: the department distributed bumper stickers reading "Occupant with Autism," designed to alert a responding officer before they exit their vehicle. Families seeking additional accommodations or resources can contact RPD's community engagement division through the department's non-emergency line. Boyce had begun laying groundwork for an autism alert program even before his appointment as the department's 31st chief, identifying it as a departmental goal in RPD's annual crime statistics briefing earlier this year.

What the department has not addressed publicly: a formal pre-registration database, similar to special needs registries maintained by law enforcement agencies in other jurisdictions, that would allow dispatchers to flag a household or vehicle before officers arrive on scene. RPD has also not published data on outcomes from autism-related encounters, complaint rates for those interactions, or the number of training hours current veteran officers have completed. North Carolina's Basic Law Enforcement Training standards have required at least eight hours of disability-specific interaction instruction and 25 hours of broader behavioral health education for new recruits since around 2006, but those minimums apply only to incoming officers, not the existing force. The NC Department of Public Safety runs a parallel free statewide program, HEART (Helping Enhance Autism Response Training), available to agencies across the state, underscoring that Raleigh is building within a broader infrastructure, not starting from scratch.

NCCDD has stated the urgency plainly: "communication barriers and misunderstood behaviors lead to unnecessary arrests, injuries, and even death" during police encounters with people with autism and intellectual and developmental disabilities. More community engagement events are planned, officials said. Whether this initiative ultimately produces that kind of accountability data will determine whether advocates treat April 10 as a turning point or a well-intentioned breakfast.