• Chloe Alice Holloway, Nell Munro, John Jackson, Sophie Phillips, and Danielle Ropar.
• School of Law, Nottingham, United Kingdom. Electronic address: chloe.holloway1@nottingham.ac.uk.
• Res Dev Disabil. 2020 Feb 1; 97: 103545.

BackgroundResearch suggests that autistic individuals may be more likely to come into contact with police and have more negative experiences in police custody. However, limited information about the difficulties they experience during the custody process is available.AimsThis study explores the experiences of autistic individuals and officers during a walkthrough of the custody process to identify specific difficulties in these encounters and what support is needed to overcome these.Methods And ProceduresA participative walkthrough method was developed to provide autistic individuals and officers an interactive opportunity to identify areas where further support in the custody process was needed. Two autistic participants and three officers took part in the study.Outcomes And ResultsAutistic participants reported negative experiences due to: i) the emotional impact of the physical setting and custody process ii) communication barriers leading to increased anxiety and iii) exposure to sensory demands. Officers highlighted three factors which limit their ability to support autistic individuals effectively: i) the custody context ii) barriers to communication and iii) knowledge and understanding of autism.Conclusions And ImplicationsAdjustments are needed to the custody process and environment to support interactions between autistic individuals and officers and improve the overall wellbeing of autistic individuals.Copyright © 2019 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd.. All rights reserved.

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