(STATEHOUSE) Feb. 17, 2009 - The House of Representatives today unanimously passed House Bill 1455, co-authored by Rep. Cleo Duncan (R-Greensburg), to add autism training to the curriculum required for firefighters and law enforcement personnel. "With the increasing amount of people with autism, I believe it is imperative for law enforcement officers to be properly trained in responding to autistic individuals," said Rep. Duncan. "The current curriculum offered by the Indiana Law Enforcement Academy and the Department of Homeland Security provides training for certain disabilities and afflictions, but not autism." Currently, DHS provides training to emergency medical service technicians, but not firefighters or other law enforcement personnel. DHS reports that providing autism training to all law enforcement personal in addition to emergency medical service technicians will result in no additional expense to the state. House Bill 1455 will also require the training and retraining of certain firefighters and law enforcement personnel on a yearly basis. Rep. Duncan encourages constituents to contact her through e-mail at h67@in.gov, by calling the Statehouse at 1-800-382-9841 or by writing her at the Statehouse, 200 W. Washington St., Indianapolis, IN 46204.
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