<p>Haven’t read the whole thread, but agree with those who say NO WAY should he go without representation. I’d say the same even if he wasn’t on the spectrum. Cops can lie when interrogating/questioning someone. This can get ugly fast, even if your son has done absolutely nothing wrong. Just say NO. </p>
<p>I would not have given out his cell # to the cop. I would have asked what it was about, asked for the cops name/badge # and phone # and gotten back to him after talking to your son and your atty.</p>
<p>For those who are adamant that this is campus police and not the “real” police . . . well, perhaps. But in my view, the only significant difference is that campus police will be LESS trained and LESS professional . . . which doesn’t help the OP’s son at all!</p>
<p>I also do NOT give out our kids’ info or cell numbers. I take and forward messages after learning all I can. NOTHING said can HELP the person questioned, as demonstrated and explained very eloquently in the video posted on the 1st page. Have an attorney call the police station and cancel the appointment. End of story. Tell your S NOT to go and NOT to walk around that area surrounding the campus police building any more.</p>
<p>Our D has had a very sobering and upsetting with her campus police. They are trained to help and protect–EACH OTHER, not our students. Please remember, there role is NOT as a friend, even if they MAY try to appear like one when “inviting” a student to “come in for an interview” or “questioning.”</p>
<p>The son, wearing black, circled a campus security building.</p>
<p>Let’s say he answers that he was just exercising and they don’t buy that, and press with further questions in a rough way. Campus police may bring in town or state police.</p>
<p>There is a lot of paranoia on campuses these days. An autistic loner would be suspect as well, unfortunately, seen as fitting some kind of profile.</p>
<p>Personally, I would get there asap no matter what. Put all the other kids in the car if you have to. When you are there, either go with your son but as soon as you get any sense at all of what is up, stop the session and say your son won’t continue without a lawyer. OR get a lawyer, and explain that the phone call was so unexpected and so mysterious that you felt uncomfortable with your autistic son going in alone. That is perfectly reasonable.</p>
<p>There is no way that your son should go in by himself, and I would not expect any police, campus or town or state, to tell you the truth about what the problem is. Clearly they want to catch him by surprise so that he cannot prepare an answer.</p>
<p>The police are not friends. It feels safer to them to find guilt rather than innocence. Your son may also deal with prejudice of some sort.</p>
<p>I am usually one to think that some posts are overreacting. In this case, I think you are underreacting and being exceedingly naive.</p>
<p>I don’t mean to alarm you, OP, and I’ll state first and foremost (before I sound like a paranoid person!) that I hope that this is just something trivial and innocuous. </p>
<p>**That said there are 3 things you mention that alarm me:
you mention a CID division
the officials you spoke want your son to come down to the station and didn’t offer to alternately meet him someplace convenient and/or speak on the phone
the officials you and your son spoke with did not proactively explain why they wanted to talk to your son**</p>
<p>Here’s why I am concerned:</p>
<p>1) Did this “request for a chat” come from the CID department or did you just end up with their phone number by accident when you tried to call them back? Typically CID means “Criminal Investigation Department” or “Criminal Intelligence Department.” My knowledge of local police organizational structures is arguably limited, but as far as I know, few local police organizations have a CID division (they’re typically organized as patrol/detectives/traffic or by severity/type of crime). Some college police forces are organized with CIDs; these tend to use the acronym for Criminal Investigation Department. </p>
<p>Texas A&M’s CID department is that acronym (investigations) and it encompasses the most troubling crimes on that campus (they also have a Patrol unit which seems to cover crime-response and general issues)
</p>
<p>2) I had dinner a few weeks ago with a good friend who’s husband is a prosecutor in a major city. The dinner conversation turned to the courts, of course, and we somehow started talking about trials and television and all that jazz. In the course of conversation the husband (prosecutor) mentioned that almost all ‘questioning’ by police these days takes places in the police station, as opposed to on the street or at the suspect’s location, because of the new primacy of recorded interviews/‘interrogation’ in criminal trials in our media-ized world. For example, while an officer’s notes and testimony can still be used in trials to describe how a defendant made some sort of statement (as Miranda warns!), videotaped and/or tape-recorded comments by the defendant him/herself can be much more powerful - and are perceived as more “accurate” by juries (as opposed to Officer Jones testifying that Defendant Smith stated xyz). </p>
<p>If this were a “did you see something?” type conversation I don’t know why that conversation couldn’t take place on the phone, for example. It just screams “problem” if they want him to come down to the station without explanation.</p>
<p>3) Which leads me to #3. It just really raises a red flag to me that they didn’t mention WHY they wanted to talk to your son. There is nothing preventing the officer/detective/personnel from saying to you, “We’re investigating these suspicious bike thefts and we hope your son may have information,” or “We’re confused about something involving a broken door in his dorm, we want to chat.” Five years ago I was at a location shortly before a suspect was there en route to committing a serious crime elsewhere (I won’t bore you with all of the other details as my post is long enough already). The police called and wanted to talk to me. The detective was very reassuring, upfront, and proactive about explaining why they wanted to talk to me (wanted to see if I remembered anything about the suspect’s purchases/behavior/etc), offered to come to my home to meet, or even just chat on the phone. The first thing he did on the phone was make a point of explaining why he was calling me (of course, there is also nothing illegal about a police officer lying about why s/he wants to speak with someone either but I digress).</p>
<p>I find it very strange - especially when speaking with you - that the police representative made no attempts at explaining why they were interested in speaking to your son (or to him). They’re not obligated to tell you (just as your son isn’t obligated to talk to them!) but if this were some minor matter, I can’t believe they wouldn’t mention it.</p>
<p>The danger in your son - especially someone who interacts differently with people and perhaps even more so with authority figures (as an autistic man) - speaking with the police is that he may be unwillingly led to make some sort of statement that isn’t reflective of how he really feels. It’s quite easy actually. The line of questioning could be as simple as the police officer making some sort of general statement, “Man, those sorority girls in the library are so loud, sometimes I’d love to just burn down those sorority houses, wouldn’t you?” Even some sort of innocuous “Yeah, me too” response could have serious consequences if they erroneously believe your son is involved in some sort of criminal, or potentially criminal matter.</p>
<p>Is there any way your son could have made some sort of statement online (Facebook or otherwise) that might, inadvertently and innocently, imply violence or disturbed thinking? (There’s a great This American Life podcast about a man who posted lines from the movie Fight Club on his Facebook page and was met with a NYPD swat team 3 hours later, facing felonious threats charges). </p>
<p>BOTTOM LINE IN MY BOOK: Don’t let your autistic college-aged son (or really any person for that matter) go alone to the police station to “answer questions” from the police without an attorney present. Especially if the rationale for such a request is absent.</p>
<p>Having followed this thread with great interest, have NOT read from any posters who are attorneys who would allow their child (or recommend that you allow your child) to go forward to the station for an “interview” or “questioning.” Among them, the unanimous sentiment is, “Just say NO to questioning.” This is the advice I as a parent, attorney and retired judge would give ANY family member or person I cared about.</p>
<p>We only really have two non-negotiables with raising our kids: </p>
<ol>
<li><p>Don’t drink and drive or drive with anyone who has been drinking.</p></li>
<li><p>Never answer questions from the police without proper representation.</p></li>
</ol>
<p>One does not have to be argumentative or rude in any way. The go-to line goes something like this: I would very much like to be helpful to you, but I will not answer any questions without an attorney present.</p>
<p>And I am so glad we drilled both of these rules into them before it could ever be close to mattering. Much longer story, but he was suspected of property damage due to being in the area where such damage had occurred on campus. He was called in and when he responded in the go-to way was then told by campus security that if he refused to answer their questions, they would have no choice but to involve the local police in “solving this case.” My son just kept to the party line saying, “I would like nothing more than to be helpful here, but I simply cannot answer your questions without an attorney.” Campus security upped their threats slightly (saying he was risking his entire future by not admitting to the crime so it could be handled on campus). After some time of them letting him sit there, he said, he wanted to call his parents as he had a lot of studying to do and they let him go with the caveat that the police would most likely be calling him. The next morning we had found a local attorney to have on stand by. S then preemptively called campus security and gave them the name and number saying, if you have anything more to discuss with me, please contact my attorney. The attorney was to call us if he ever got a phone call. He never did. Now, either they solved their case or realized that they had nothing to go on except a fishing expedition, but my S was dropped from the matter. </p>
<p>S later admitted that he was indeed scared but felt somewhat reassured in knowing that no matter what, he had a right to have an attorney present and that is what gave him the confidence to CALMY be respectful while also protecting his rights.</p>
<p>I realize I am very lucky that when he called us right away when security called him in, so we knew all about his going before going (but he didn’t tell them that.) He told us he had no knowledge of any mischief, but admitted he had run when campus security showed up at the party but only because he had been drinking (and was about two weeks shy of his 21st birthday.). His only reason for running was he did not want to get a citation. He has never lied about bone-headed behavior before so we had every reason to believe him. Most importantly? Having an attorney lined up to take the call cost us absolutely nothing. Now true, if the police HAD called this attorney, we would have had to pay him. But we were also prepared to incur some expense to make sure we were well aware of the entire situation.</p>
<p>^^^ Smart kid, staying calm and repeating his stock phrase. Good result! ^^^ Not all kids can stay calm when nervous/scared and keep repeating the mantra calmly, but good to know your kid can. Hope my kids can as well.</p>
<p>I honestly think drilling it into his head is the only reason it worked. So…my advice to ALL parents is to make sure you talk about it long before it would ever be a possibility because we ALL get nervous and anxious when pressured, even the innocent. Maybe even especially the innocent and in their quest to get the heck out of there as soon as possible may think they are helping a situation by being as forthcoming as possible. But whether it’s because you did something wrong, were a witness to something wrong, or did nothing at all… better to be safe than railroaded. And as a parent; Never ever ever think, “My kid would never…” so it doesn’t apply. Being in the wrong place at the wrong time has landed plenty of people in extremely hot water having done nothing else but being there.</p>
<p>If the police/CID (campus or otherwise) have a video of the student walking around the building, looking suspicious to them, but not actually doing anything, is there any way they can force the student to come in, or even arrest him?</p>
<p>Just want to make sure that saying “no” won’t result in some more aggressive action on their part.</p>
<p>I realize that even if they do, the student still has the right to an attorney and does not have to answer questions without one, if he can hold onto that thought under pressure. But would it be better not to say no, and instead go in with an attorney, to get it over with and avoid worse problems?</p>
<p>The only way they can “force” him to come in is to arrest him . . . and they can’t arrest him in a situation like this without an arrest warrant, signed by a judge. As pointed out in post #67 above, the most effective way to “avoid worse problems” is to just say no.</p>
<p>This is so interesting. I agree it’s possible walking around the police building dressed as he was would raise their attention, but how the heck would they figure out who it was to question?</p>
<p>What size is this school - if it has its own CID division, it must be fairly large - do you think they sifted through all the student ID pics to narrow down who to talk to? They would have to be very slow to do this.</p>
<p>Hopefully, the mom can get some answers this morning. The lack of info would drive me crazy and I would want to be on the phone or go there in person to get this straightened out. There is so much speculation and possibilities-walking aound the building, posting or saying something strange. He could even just be making someone uncomfortable just by acting a little strange or staring,etc. Who knows but I hope the OP can get to the bottom of this ASAP.</p>
<p>When most of the posters on this board agree, you should take notice. Get an attorney.</p>
<p>After reading and thinking about the facts, I think it is highly likely that the police want to know about some behavior of or accusation against you son–not an incident involving somebody else.</p>
<p>I can tell you, from being married to a cop (police captain) for 12 years, and having a degree in CJ that they will lie to get you in. They will not tell you you are in trouble b/c you might “lawyer up” or not show up, hide evidence, work on getting your story straight, etc… They want you to show up and then catch you off guard.</p>
<p>This is in the case where they don’t have enough to arrest you to start with - often they get what they need for that in the interview at the station - where they caught you off guard! Even if you don’t incriminate yourself to the point of an immediate arrest, you could get yourself under further investigation based on what you say - not a fun thing.</p>
<p>maidenMom,Wow, All the more reason the son should not just show up at the station unaccompanied. I saw an interesting show on PBS, “Appropriate Adult.” In the UK, any vulnerable adult(which I assume an autistic son would qualify ), cannot be questioned without a parent,guardian, social worker, or appropriate adult present to protect their interests. I can’t remember if a lawyer also has to be present but there is info about their system online.</p>
<p>I’m following this with great interest, and OP, I hope you will take all of the advice you are receiving seriously. I would not let my son go in for questioning, regardless of whether he was on the autistic spectrum or not. Please keep us posted.</p>
<p>Noting that OP’s son’s “autistic tendencies”, there’s a high probability that someone has reported him for “unusual behavior”, perhaps a student or faculty member “feeling stalked” by OP’s son. Unfortunately, this can happen quite innocently. Autistic students may be quite proficient academically, but miss the social cues that their behavior could be construed (but not intended as) invasive or intimidating. I’m noting this as a parent of an autistic young adult.</p>
<p>Hopefully OP has counselled her son NOT to go to police station, and has asked the Student Services/Learning Disabilities Office (who hopefully has an established relationship w/OP’s DS) to intervene as OP’s DS’ advocate. “CID” involvement suggests there’s a complaint against OP’s DS. Situation could escalate quickly. “Inconvenience” shouldn’t delay OP’s close monitoring and possible/probable intervention. These situations can become magnified into a major crisis.</p>
<p>I find it very odd that campus police called the parent. With the heightened sense of student privacy at most colleges restricting parents’ access to most information concerning their child’s performance, why would campus police call parents anyways?</p>
<p>I find this thread to be very upsetting. My first thought was that most people were overreacting and that this is just a minor incident. I found out, weeks after it happened, that my son was questioned by campus police his freshman year when some very disturbing graffitti (sp?) was spray-painted in his dorm bathroom. I don’t know how I would have reacted if I had known in advance. He was not considered a suspect and I don’t know that they ever found the perpetrator.</p>
<p>As a law-abiding person, I want to think that we live in a country where the police are to be trusted. From reading this thread, I am afraid that is not a reality today. Nearly everyone on here seems to agree. How have we gotten to this point and how do we change it?</p>