We had the good fortune of connecting with Ali Thompson and we’ve shared our conversation below.
Hi Ali, can you walk us through the thought-process of starting your business?
It was my passion for helping others that was the true spark behind the launch of Pulse Line Collaborative Training, LLC (PLCT) and I believe it is why we have been so successful. I have over 20 years of experience as a law enforcement officer, primarily focused on crimes against people with disabilities and the elderly. In the early days of the pandemic, when most of us were sent to work from home, that sudden slow down gave me time to evaluate who I was and what I was really spending time on. It was then that I realized just how unhappy I was. My investigations were bogged down by politics and bureaucracy and I no longer felt like I was helping people, which was why I, and most others, became police officers.
At the same time, there was so much division and negativity in our country and police officers were being attacked and judged based on the actions of a few. I went to my office one day and “Kill all Cops”, and “ACAB” was spray painted on the side of our building and I openly wept. It was seen that police were evil and all were failing to protect our vulnerable citizens. There was, and still is a major problem in our country, and I realized it could be helped by understanding and providing training.
For decades, officers have been taught, “ask, tell, make,” (ask someone to do something, then tell them to do it, then make them do it), and a use of force continuum that teaches, when met with verbal non-compliance they are supposed to use “hands on” control. In our law enforcement academies, we have taught our recruits to do what officers did in high-profile cases like Elijah McClain, and Karen Garner, and all the others where officers go hands on immediately after verbal commands are not followed. We have not been teaching officers that, if there are no weapons or active aggression, they need to try to figure out why the person is not responding to verbal commands. Are they deaf, do they have Alzheimer’s or autism? Sometimes, it will still be necessary.to use force, but, if there is no imminent threat to safety or attack, other tools should be exhausted first.
For 12 years I had been a single mom (widow) raising two children with disabilities. I had to learn about communication, behavioral challenges, and effective techniques first-hand, and with a lot of trial and error. As most people with loved ones who have disabilities, I’ve worried about what would happen if my children were contacted by police or first responders and did not have myself or a caregiver with them to help explain their conditions, communication, and behaviors. I can completely see my daughter not understanding verbal commands, or my son being in an autistic breakdown and having his stimming behavior viewed as aggression.
In 2019, Governor Polis appointed me to serve on the Colorado Developmental Disabilities Council where I had the opportunity to work on legislation such as HB21-1122 First Responder Interactions with Persons With Disabilities and HB21-1014 Disability Symbol Identification, to help our citizens with disabilities and our officers be safer.
While in a meeting discussing that legislation, I met my business partner, Jess Stainbrook. He and I share a passion for helping people with disabilities and discussed how we could make a real difference, and Pulse Line Collaborative Training, LLC was created. I discovered that I am most fulfilled and happiest when I can use my experience, passion, and knowledge to make vulnerable people safer and help make the jobs of first responders easier.
I conducted a project interviewing people with various disabilities and mental health disorders, talking with them about their disabilities and experiences, both good and bad, with law enforcement and first responders, and what they wanted first responders to know. From those interviews, and a lot of research, a curriculum was started. I then collaborated with the Autism Society of Colorado and we created the Interacting with People with Disabilities (IWD) curriculum, with modules for law enforcement, dispatch, corrections, EMS, Fire, Professionals, and parents.
Luckily, around this time, I met the man who would eventually become my husband, and he was supportive in every way, helping me have the courage to leap from a well-paying, solid, secure law enforcement job, to starting a business with no guarantees of pay checks or benefits.
I am overjoyed and much happier now that I get to utilize my expertise from my years in law enforcement, as well as my years active in the disability field, and teach classes that truly make both people with disabilities and police officers safer. I help first responders understand and recognize characteristics of disability and give them tools to help them communicate without escalation and, if needed, tools that may help to de-escalate situations. We also provide tools for people with disabilities and their loved ones to help them communicate with dispatchers and first responders more effectively.
To date we have trained over 1100 first responders and over 97% who completed evaluation forms “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they would recommend our training to other first responders. Feedback we receive from our first responders about our classes always focuses on the passion with which we present, the personal experiences I share about cases worked professionally as well as stories about my children, and the advantage of being able to relate and represent BOTH the side of law enforcement and the side of people with disabilities because it was created by people who have experience with both.
Alright, so for those in our community who might not be familiar with your business, can you tell us more?
Pulse Line Collaborative Training, LLC offers a different kind of training than I’ve ever seen or experienced. Our trainings incorporate videos of interviews with persons with various disabilities (blind, deaf and hearing impaired, physically disabled, intellectually disabled, developmentally disabled, autistic) discussing their personal experiences with first responders and other professionals; allowing people with disabilities to speak for themselves and help teach professionals and first responders what may lead to more positive interactions. The curriculum has been collaboratively developed with the assistance of the disabled community, advocates, and first responders and is dynamic and even fun at times. It also includes real-life scenarios, interactive exercises, and case reviews.
Our IWD training truly represents BOTH the side of first responders and the side of people with disabilities because it was created and is presented by people who have experience with both. The instructors we hire are required to have extensive experience in their field (law enforcement, fire service, dispatch, etc) as well as personal experience with people with disabilities. This allows the people we teach to feel comfortable, trust us, and pay attention because we speak their language and we’ve worked their jobs and understand the real situations and danger they face daily.
IWD training provides concrete tools for officers to help them identify disability characteristics and communication tools to use with people with disabilities. Not only does the curriculum cover de-escalation techniques, it offers what we call “anti-escalation” tools that officers can use to avoid going hands on.
We also present numerous scenarios for students to practice the tools they have learned. Our scenarios are not re-enactments or typical roleplay exercises, as officers tend to feel that they do not represent what “really happens on the street”, but we use real-life video and bodycam-based scenarios. We cut the incidents into smaller pieces and let officers discuss what to do at different points of the incidents.
PLCT has presented this curriculum to numerous departments, agencies, and organizations including Douglas County Sheriff’s Office, Arvada Police Department, Loveland Police Department, FBI Command College, Greeley Police Department, University of Colorado Police Department, Colorado State Patrol Law Enforcement Academy, Lakewood/Jefferson County Combined Law enforcement Academy, Highlands Ranch Law Enforcement Academy, Western States Project, and numerous other departments and academies across the state. To date, we have trained over 1100 first responders and, on evaluation forms, over 97% “agreed” or “strongly agreed” that they would recommend the IWD training to other first responders!
We are most proud to hear the “after” stories. One officer called me about a week after he took IWD and told me that he and his partner had been dispatched to a disturbance where, in the past they would have likely had to use force. He used a distraction technique we teach, and it completely defused the situation. Another first responder called me and said that, using a communication technique he learned in our class, he was able to get information for a “non-verbal” person who needed help. In every single class we have students approach us to tell us that they now understand someone in their life with autism or another disability much better.
The hardest part of this business has been finding funding. We partner with a couple of non-profits to fiscally sponsor departments, but we are finding it challenging financially to provide training to smaller departments and agencies, especially in rural areas. Government budgets are tight but we still have employees to pay, and travel costs, and overhead costs. We are still exploring ways to find funding to enable us to provide training to all first responders regardless of their training budget, so we can make the world a better place for our public servants and people with disabilities.
If you had a friend visiting you, what are some of the local spots you’d want to take them around to?
Our go to spot when we have visitors is Estes Park and Rocky Mountain National Park. In less than an hour, we can be in this beautiful, amazing park that people come from all over the world to see! Also, fun fact, the National Park Service offers a lifetime access pack for people with disabilities. Estes Park is an amazing mountain town where you can see elk and other wildlife, get handmade taffy, enjoy great Mexican food (Ed’s Cantina), watch artisans blowing glass right in front of you, and go on a ghost tour at The Stanley Hotel!
Who else deserves some credit and recognition?
One of the books that made me take a hard look at my life and helped me to figure out how to find my joy and passion and that is “You are a Badass:How to Stop Doubting your Greatness and Start Living an Awesome Life” by Jen Sincero . I have given away at least 15 copies of this book and recommend it to anyone who will listen.
I wouldn’t have the passion, knowledge, or experience I have without my children, Joe and Amelia; the people who have guided me and taught me so much in my career, Bob Booth, Millie McParlane, Heidi Prentup, Phil West, and so many other amazing law enforcement officers and judicial officials; my friends and colleagues in the disability advocacy world, Lea Anne Paskvalich, Representative Dafna Michelson-Jenet, Representative Meg Frolich, Matt Cloven, and those on the CDDC; all of the vulnerable victims and witnesses of sometimes horrific crimes that I had the honor to meet and learn from in my investigations over the years; and of course my wonderful Special Olympic athletes and fellow coaches.
I wouldn’t have had the guts to leap into my own business without my amazing husband, John Lehner, my mom Barbara Moore, my business partner Jess Stainbrook, and my amazing assistant and friend, Mary Griffin.
Without even one of these people I would not be where I am today.
Website: https://www.pulseline.org/index
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/100068769894413/