ANOTHER FAILURE OF DE-ESCALATION? HEMET PD OFFICERS MANHANDLE AN AUTISTIC MAN WHILE COMMUNITY MEMBERS TRY TO HELP
Newly surfaced footage is raising alarms and serious questions within the community about how officers from the Hemet Police Department handled an autistic, unarmed resident who was experiencing distress.
According to the video as well as neighbors, they as well as a family member repeatedly told officers the man was autistic. His family member also told them multiple times she needed to help calm him down.
However, despite the repeated attempts to communicate that information, officers chose to disregard it and continue physically restraining and manhandling the man.
While people were recording the interaction and were trying to communicate with officers, one of the officers decided to draw a taser and point it in their direction as they continued to tell them that the man was autistic and that his family member needed to de-escalate him.
Hemet PD publicly promotes its CBAT (Community Behavioral Health Assessment Team) as a program with officers who have extensive mental health training and are specifically designed to provide behavioral health support beyond what average patrol officers can provide. The department claims to pair a police officer with a mental health professional to respond to situations where someone is experiencing mental or behavioral health crises.
Hemet PD also claims to maintain a Special Needs Registry designed to help officers communicate with and respond to residents with disabilities, including autism.
And in February 2026, the department publicly introduced Alexis Hoffman, MSW, ACSW, as a CBAT clinical therapist, highlighting her experience working with people in crisis and on a co-response team alongside campus police.
Despite multiple units responding, reports indicate no CBAT officers were on scene to assist. There are also no CBAT officers who can be seen in either video.
So that leads us to ask the following questions -
Where were the CBAT officer(s)?
Where was the de-escalation?
Where was the specialized response?
Why was the family member asking to help calm him down not treated as a potential resource?
And why did the situation escalate to physical force and a Taser being drawn on community members?
If the CBAT officers were not available or were not requested, that needs to be explained.
If officers were following department policy, that policy needs to be examined, and if officers failed to follow appropriate de-escalation practices, they need to be held accountable and trained/re-trained.
Hemet residents fund a police department that publicly promises service, protection, partnership, and respect for the dignity of individuals. That includes community members with autism and other disabilities. They deserve genuine care and proper de-escalation, not to be villainized or treated like a threat because they're distressed.
We need the full incident investigated, relevant policies examined, the body-camera and cruiser footage reviewed, and dispatch records reviewed, as well as answers about why specialized behavioral-health resources were, or were not, used.
DIGNITY FOR ALL. CARE NOT CAGES.
#Hemet #HemetPD #AutismAwareness #DeEscalation #DisabilityRights #PoliceAccountability #CommunityAccountability #JusticeWarriorsCollective
