BALTIMORE — During a routine traffic stop in the Baltimore metropolitan area, Maryland Department of Transportation Police Sgt. Kevin Moody encountered a scenario that tests the limits of modern law enforcement training. A motorist refused to remove his hands from his pockets, a posture that immediately signals a high level of tactical risk to officers trained to protect themselves from concealed weapons. Historically, such noncompliance has escalated rapidly into physical restraint or worse.
However, Moody recognized a critical variable that fundamentally altered the tactical landscape. Rather than viewing the behavior solely as a potential threat, he considered that the motorist’s refusal might stem from a neurodevelopmental condition. The man shouted, “Y’all just going to have to kill me today,” while Moody demanded to see his hands. The motorist replied, “Man, you just got to let me stim.”
Having recently participated in specialized community outreach initiatives, Moody understood that "stimming"—self-stimulatory behavior such as rocking, hand-flapping, or keeping hands tightly enclosed in pockets—serves as a vital coping mechanism for individuals with autism and other intellectual or developmental disabilities to regulate overwhelming stress. Instead of forcing the man’s hands out of his pockets, Moody conducted a modified pat-down while allowing the motorist to continue stimming. The interaction concluded peacefully, averting a potentially lethal escalation.
This incident highlights the life-saving potential of "Badges and Bridges," an innovative community program co-founded by Moody and Baltimore advocate Mack Dawson. The program is designed to bridge the chasm between law enforcement personnel and individuals living with intellectual, developmental, and invisible disabilities by fostering understanding long before a crisis erupts on the street.
The High Stakes of Crisis Interventions in Maryland
The urgency of reforming police interactions with individuals experiencing mental health crises or neurodivergence is underscored by a series of fatal encounters across Maryland. In March, Howard County Police officers shot and killed 25-year-old Alexander LaMorie, an autistic man from Columbia. Two months later, Baltimore Police officers shot and killed 46-year-old Louis Jackson during a mental-health-related call in Southwest Baltimore. An additional tragic incident occurred in June 2025, when Baltimore Police shot and killed 70-year-old Pytorcarcha Brooks during a severe mental health crisis.
The circumstances surrounding these events varied significantly, illustrating the complex operational environments officers face. In the case of Louis Jackson, police reported that Jackson, who was armed and threatening suicide, fired at officers upon their arrival on South Caton Avenue. While an officer attempted to establish tactical distance and issued repeated verbal commands, Jackson continued firing, prompting officers to return fire.
These divergent scenarios emphasize the immense difficulty at the intersection of disability rights, mental health crisis response, and tactical policing. Officers are routinely dispatched to volatile situations where an individual may be in extreme psychological distress, yet their physical actions may objectively present a genuine, immediate threat to life.
Disproportionate Impact: National Data and Local Realities
Nationwide research consistently demonstrates that individuals with disabilities are disproportionately represented in police use-of-force incidents. According to data compiled by Disability Rights Ohio, individuals with disabilities comprise between 30% and 50% of all people subjected to police force. More alarmingly, studies indicate that 33% to 50% of individuals killed by law enforcement officers live with a documented physical, intellectual, or psychological disability.
These statistics reflect a systemic friction point: behaviors driven by neurological differences—such as delayed processing, avoidance of eye contact, erratic movements, vocal outbursts, or stimming—frequently mirror indicators of aggression, intoxication, or noncompliance that police officers are trained to neutralize.
Recognizing these systemic vulnerabilities, Dawson and Moody launched Badges and Bridges to equip both law enforcement professionals and vulnerable community members with mutual survival strategies. The program targets participants ranging from young children to adults, pairing them with first responders from Baltimore City, Baltimore County, and surrounding jurisdictions. A notable recent iteration of the program took place during the annual National Night Out celebrations.
Organized in collaboration with Preparing Youth for Tomorrow, Inc. (PYT) at City Ranch, these community engagement sessions provide a neutral environment for interaction. PYT, originally founded by Moody to mentor youth through financial literacy, has expanded its mission to foster leadership opportunities and build trust between marginalized populations and law enforcement agencies. During these events, police officers and neurodivergent community members interact with therapeutic horses before engaging in structured dialogues on an equal footing.
A Two-Way Educational Exchange
Unlike traditional disability-awareness training, which typically focuses exclusively on instructing officers on how to handle civilian populations, Badges and Bridges emphasizes reciprocity. The curriculum is structured around a dual exchange of perspectives:
- Education for Law Enforcement: Officers learn how intellectual, developmental, and invisible disabilities affect sensory processing, communication, and behavioral responses during high-stress encounters. They are taught to recognize non-threatening indicators of distress, such as stimming or verbal repetition, that might otherwise be misconstrued as hostility.
- Education for Community Members: Participants with disabilities, alongside their families and advocates, gain insight into police training methodologies, tactical safety protocols, and the physiological toll of split-second decision-making on officers.
"There might be situations that officers are faced with where they are dealing with somebody with an invisible disability, but they don’t have the training or they’re not aware of what they should be able to do," Moody explained.
At the same time, Moody emphasized that safety remains the paramount directive of law enforcement training. He referenced a 2024 incident in New York where a suspect shot two police officers from his pocket during an attempted arrest. "We’re trained to be able to go back home to our families," Moody said. "That’s why they teach us that stuff."
The Psychological Toll on First Responders
Dawson, a professional massage therapist who identifies as neurodivergent, stresses that effective training must acknowledge the psychological pressures borne by law enforcement officers. High-stress encounters do not occur in a vacuum; officers frequently respond to traumatic scenes immediately prior to a crisis call.
"We don’t have enough first responders learning how to take care of these dynamic issues," Dawson noted.
Moody expanded on this operational reality, pointing out that an officer arriving at a domestic dispute or mental health crisis may be carrying the cumulative psychological weight of prior calls. "I could be going to this from seeing deceased babies, you know what I mean?" Moody said. "And when I get there, that is your emergency at the moment, and you’re thinking that I’m not super sensitive to that, but you don’t even know where I just came from."
For Dawson, integrating the officer’s perspective into disability advocacy is not about diluting the legitimate safety concerns of disabled individuals. Rather, it is a pragmatic approach designed to maximize safety for all parties involved. By dismantling the "us versus them" dichotomy, the program attempts to build empathetic bridges before crises occur.
"I know to not just ask a bunch of people who already kind of agree with me to come in a room and tell them, ‘Hey, this is how you should interact with people,’" Dawson said. "It’s more so, ‘I can see you’re hurt. We’re hurt too. Let’s try to figure this out and make sure that we both get that.’"
Broader Implications and Future Outlook
As police departments nationwide grapple with recruitment challenges, public scrutiny, and the expanding scope of duties—frequently serving as default responders for mental health and societal safety net failures—initiatives like Badges and Bridges offer a scalable model for community policing.
By shifting the paradigm from reactive enforcement to proactive, empathetic education, programs in Baltimore illustrate that bridging the gap between law enforcement and vulnerable populations is achievable. While training alone cannot eliminate the inherent dangers of policing, initiatives that foster mutual recognition of trauma, neurological differences, and operational constraints represent a significant step toward preventing avoidable tragedies on the streets of Maryland and beyond.
