Arlington

Arlington Police and UTA Police Help A Student Prepare for Possible Police Interactions

Mom asks for help because her son has difficulty communicating

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A traffic stop can raise the anxiety level of any driver.

But, for someone who has difficulty communicating there could be other challenges between the driver and police.

That's why the mother of a University of Texas Arlington student reached out to both campus and city police to help her son.

When she knew her son would be driving his car back to school at UTA for the first time she was worried. He has difficulty communicating sometimes and she was worried if he got pulled over by police he may not know how to react since he has never been pulled over. So she reached out to campus and city police for help and they responded.

Sergeant Tom Savage with UTA Police explained what they did.

"We set up a mock traffic stop with a marked unit and pulled in behind them lights flashing and everything just like we would on a real traffic stop," Savage said.

Officer Trevor Clenney with Arlington Police is so glad the family reached out for this proactive interaction with their son.

"I would love to have the opportunity to meet with folks before they fell into crisis so that we could have that mutual ground so that we could have that relationship and rapport already built," Clenney said.

Both officers are glad to have been able to provide this level of community policing for this family.

"Most of us are in this job because we enjoy serving and to have that recognized is certainly rewarding," Savage said.

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