Police in Tennessee arrested over 600 people for DUIs in seven years, with one thing in common. Namely, they were all sober. Now, a police officer in Hendersonville, Tennessee, arrested a young man for a DUI, when it turns out that his autism kept him from answering questions and passing a field sobriety test sufficiently. 

The arrest suggests that Tennessee police and departments need more training for DUI sobriety tests and autistic people

A police officer in Hendersonville, Tennessee, pulled over a motorist on a dark road after observing him crossing the center line. Six times, according to the police department’s documentation and camera footage. The driver, Charlie Hatch, was heading home after a 12 and a half hour shift and a stop at his local church youth group. Of course, the officer didn’t know any of that. He just suspected a DUI and pulled Hatch over.

Officer Gibson’s body cam footage confirmed some of the telltale signs of inebriation that police officers seek when assessing a suspected DUI. Gibson said Hatch’s eyes were “not good,” and that he was “slurring a little bit,” per WSMV 4. Things got worse as a Sumner County sheriff’s deputy arrived. Deputy Gabriel Yap asked many probing questions of Hatch, including where he was and whether he had consumed any drinks. “No, sir,” Hatch responded to them all.

Ironically, Yap slurred through one of his own questions. “Why are we slurred speech?” the deputy asked before Hatch took on a standardized field sobriety test (SFST). Needless to say, Hatch didn’t do very well in the SFST. But before Hatch took the assessment, Yap asked him a mandatory question. “Do you have any medical problems?” Hatch responded by saying no, neglecting to tell the deputy that he is autistic.

Hatch’s parents arrived on the scene after Yap had cuffed him and placed him in his cruiser. The deputy’s body cam footage confirms that Hatch’s parents informed the officer of his condition. “He has autism,” his mother explained. “In Charlie’s mind, that’s not a disability,” she said, explaining why he didn’t tell the deputy when asked about medical conditions.

Still, the parental intervention didn’t stop Hatch from spending 10 nerve-racking hours in jail after the wrongful arrest. And at no point during the initial interaction did Yap or anyone else offer Hatch a breathalyzer test to confirm his blood alcohol concentration (BAC). Fortunately, WSMV 4 reports that the authorities dropped the DUI charge.

However, Jessica Moore of Autism Tennessee says the issue is indicative of a need for training and understanding. “We try to help law enforcement to understand, are they asking rapid-fire questions? Are they asking too many questions? All of that can cause – especially to an autistic person – to not be able to respond quickly. They could have trouble processing the language,” Moore said of cases like Hatch’s.

Hatch’s father, Andy, agreed that officers are ill-equipped for these situations. “Officers need more training, so obviously something like this, innocent people thrown in jail for ten hours, when they didn’t do anything wrong,” Andy said.