For further information:
Dennis Debbaudt, 2338 SE Holland Street, Port St. Lucie FL 34952
Phone 772/398-9756, Email ddpi@flash.net
http://www.autismriskmanagement.com/
http://policeandautism.cjb.net/
 

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Tracking device offers peace of mind
September 22, 2004
BY ERIN CHAN
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER

Seven weeks ago, Milton Bates, 86, slipped into an elevator meant for visitors at his assisted-living facility in Farmington Hills. He ended up on the street, hoping to reach the Detroit home he and his wife lived in 60 years ago.

Once outside, he headed toward police investigating a car accident and began throwing rocks at them, convinced they were Nazis out to kill him, recounted his wife, Marion Bates, 82, of Southfield.

Within minutes, Bates' caregivers found him and explained to officers that he had Alzheimer's disease and with it, a tendency to wander. But the incident still shook his wife. Yet again, he had run away to find a place that no longer existed.

"It's living through the same fear every day," Marion Bates said, describing how she views her husband's disease. "You feel trapped. There's no way out."

There still is no cure for Alzheimer's, but a green disk about the size of a quarter that has started appearing in metro Detroit may alleviate the panic felt when a loved one wanders off.

Weighing 1 ounce, the disk is a radio transmitter attached to a nylon or plastic band. It can be worn like a watch or clasped like an anklet, sported on a belt or fastened onto shoelaces. A part of a national program called Project Lifesaver, the disk emits radio waves that help police equipped with portable receivers and antennas find those who are lost.

The transmitter debuted in Oak Park last month, and Southfield Police plan to join the program by the end of this year. Designed for people with Alzheimer's, dementia, autism and other illnesses that result in people wandering from the care of loved ones or nursing homes, Project Lifesaver is used in 38 states.

So far, the only radio-transmitters registered with Project Lifesaver in metro Detroit came in August, when ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" visited Oak Park and outfitted 13-year-old Lance Vardon, who is blind and autistic, with two transmitters donated from Project Lifesaver and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Standing in the doorway of his family's new house on a recent Sunday, Lance's brother, Stefan Vardon, 14, described how one evening last year, Lance wandered away from their house near 11 Mile and Coolidge. The family called police, who scoured the area for about an hour. Lance was eventually found at a neighbor's house.

Lance's two transmitters have been sewn into the pockets of two nightshirts, said his father, Larry Vardon, 45, in sign language as Stefan translated.

"I feel happy," Larry Vardon said. "And less of a sense of worry for him."

In Michigan, about 220,000 people have some form of dementia. Of them, 176,000 have Alzheimer's, according to Sara Holmes, education coordinator for the Michigan Alzheimer's Disease Research Center at the University of Michigan.

Nationwide, about 4.5 million people have Alzheimer's or another form of dementia, said Kathleen O'Brien, senior vice president for program and community services of the Chicago-based Alzheimer's Association. O'Brien said the organization anticipates the number of people with Alzheimer's and dementia to increase to 12 million in the next 20 years as the baby boom generation ages. Alzheimer's, she said, is the most common form of dementia. She added that among those who have Alzheimer's , more than two-thirds have the potential to wander.

Mary Lou Irons, 66, of Walled Lake said she did not think her husband, Bob, had problems with wandering -- until a few weeks ago.

Between the hour Irons left for work and her husband, who has Alzheimer's, was picked up to go to a day care center, Bob Irons, 70, walked out of their brick condominium multiple times, looking lost. Neighbors quickly found him, Mary Lou Irons said, but she readjusted her schedule to ensure someone was always monitoring him. Irons said she may be interested in the radio-transmitter device if it becomes available in Walled Lake.

One of the Bateses' daughters, Lynda Paull, 61, said the device sounds promising but cautioned that it will not prevent wandering. "If a person wandered off, by the time police get called, they could be dead already," she said.

Her mother, Marion Bates, who has said she would like to learn more about the device, noted that last year, her husband wandered from their apartment in Southfield. Neighbors found Milton Bates in the parking lot, wearing just a light sweater. Outside, the thermometer read 5 degrees.

To start Project Lifesaver in Southfield, the police department plans to allocate grant money in coming weeks, said Chief Joseph Thomas Jr. A starter kit -- two transmitter bracelets, two receivers and two days of training -- costs $5,300, said Chief Gene Saunders, head of the Sheriff's Search and Rescue unit in Chesapeake, Va., and executive director of Project Lifesaver, a nonprofit organization based in that city.

Additional bracelets cost $263 each, and police departments can charge the bracelet-wearers no more than $25 a month as a fee, Saunders said. He added that if someone needs the bracelet but cannot afford it, the department must provide it for free.

Saunders conceived of the device in 1999, manufactured it through Care Trak, a company based in Murphysboro, Ill., and first tested it in April 1999 on a Chesapeake man who had dementia.

In a previous wandering incident, Saunders said it had taken eight hours to find the man in an overgrown field. When police first activated the device in 1999, Saunders said, they found him in a minute and a half, about 125 yards from his house. Nationwide, the device has spread to 331 agencies and, as of Tuesday, had aided in 1,036 rescues, Saunders said.

Thomas said he hopes Southfield Police will have the program in place for willing people with Alzheimer's by December. He also hopes helicopters at the Oakland County Sheriff's Aviation Unit will become a central part of the program.

Sgt. Mike Wickham, unit commander of the aviation unit, said he would participate if Southfield asked. One of his officers, Deputy John Ashley, brought Project Lifesaver to the police department's attention.

The first organization to use the devices in Michigan, the Aleda E. Lutz Veterans Affairs Medical Center in Saginaw, distributes up to roughly 15 bracelets to people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia who check into the hospital, said Kathy Tate, hospital spokeswoman.

Tate said that in the past two years, the hospital police have not had to activate their receivers.

At Botsford Commons Community in Farmington Hills, where Milton Bates has lived for two months, Administrator Margaret Lightner said the Project Lifesaver device would be most useful in independent-living facilities but could also help in more secure areas designed for people with Alzheimer's and other forms of dementia -- where even locked stairwell doors and consistent monitoring may not guarantee that a person determined to leave stays inside.

For now, when Marion Bates takes the bus from Southfield to visit her husband, she reminds him that Alzheimer's and the symptoms that go with it are not his fault. At times, she soothes him by taking him to see Parker, a multicolored cockatiel near his room on the third floor.

Soon, her mind may be eased a bit more, too, by a small green radio transmitter and a program called Project Lifesaver.


Contact ERIN CHAN at 248-351-3293 or chan@freepress.com.

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Project Lifesaver quickly finds wandering relatives
Detroit Free Press Editorial
Saturday October 2, 2004

Radio tracking systems are now available in the Detroit-area for people with autism, Alzheimer's or other conditions that make wandering away dangerous. Such devices can be a great comfort to families, but help is needed to increase their use. It's a cause worth supporting.

The amount is within fund-raising reach for many organizations that provide support services for the disabled or for local police departments. The start-up program costs $5,300, plus travel expenses for instructors. For a police department, that covers radio-signal receivers and two quarter-sized transmitters for patients. More transmitters, usually worn as bracelets or anklets, can be added at a cost of $263 each.

The Project Lifesaver system is spreading across the country. Its first local use is in Oak Park, where ABC's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" arranged transmitters for Lance Vardon, 13, who is blind and autistic, when the Vardon family home was refurbished. Costs were covered by Project Lifesaver and the Alzheimer's Foundation of America.

Southfield hopes to use a grant to join the program. Other police departments may also have this option, but even then may need help expanding the service. Project Lifesaver allows them to charge users up to $25 a month, but they must make it available free to those who can't pay.

The system offers particular hope to those trying to keep Alzheimer's patients comfortable in the least restrictive setting possible. Certainly police benefit by being able to find wanderers more quickly -- a half-hour on average, according to Project Lifesaver -- and without having to mobilize a large search team.

The net result, an increase in peace of mind, is a priceless benefit for the families and police agencies involved.

TO LEARN MORE Contact:
Project Lifesaver
http://projectlifesaver.org

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Contact with Individuals with Autism: Effective Resolutions
The FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin,  April, 2001
by Dennis Debbaudt, Darla Rothman Ph.D.

In contemporary 21st century law enforcement, police managers have become increasingly proactive in their efforts to develop officer awareness of volatile circumstances and situations. They want their officers to learn to properly handle these situations not only for the safety of the officers and citizens involved, but also to avoid future potential litigation. Because today's work force is increasingly diverse, new laws, such as the Americans with Disabilities Act, ensure that persons with developmental disabilities remain a part of that diversity.

Recent research concluded that the developmentally disabled are approximately seven times more likely to come in contact with law enforcement than others. [1] In light of this conclusion, law enforcement officers should receive training to prepare to evaluate information and physical cues or body language that may indicate the person they come in contact with has autism. Because autism affects every sector of society, officers first must understand the condition. Second, they must learn to apply certain techniques in the initial contact or interview, which may increase the probability of appropriate responses and lead to a successful outcome of the encounter.

What is Autism?

Autism is a developmental disability that manifests itself within the first 3 years of a child's life. While some individuals with autism have mental retardation, autism is not retardation. It is a broad spectrum neurological disorder, which presents itself in a variety of symptoms that affects individuals differently. Estimates of persons having some form of autism exceed 500,000 nationally, becoming the third most common developmental disability in the United States. [2] Autism affects the normal development of the brain relating to social and communicative interaction. Individuals with autism have difficulty appropriately communicating with, or relating to, others.

When responding to a call that involves a person with autism, officers may face a situation that will challenge the training, instincts, and professional conduct of even the most experienced police veteran. Is the individual intoxicated? On narcotics? Or is the person developmentally disabled?

Where are Individuals with Autism Usually Found?

Because approximately 80 percent of patrol responses do not involve criminal activity, contact with individuals with autism may occur anywhere in the community. [3] Because autism affects each individual differently, many people with autism often function well in society--they may have regular employment in a supervised or unsupervised workplace, and may live in traditional or assisted living homes. Therefore, the initial call for assistance to law enforcement may first appear as a domestic disturbance; however, upon arrival, the officers may receive information or otherwise determine that the subject is affected with autism and has reacted inappropriately to some event. The initial contact may be predicated by a request for medical assistance. Reports estimate that as many as 25 percent of individuals with autism will have seizures by the age of 21. [4] Other calls may involve complaints of strange behavior, such as being in an unfamiliar place or just wandering around or doing unusual things. Autistic persons  have not developed the social awareness usually expected by others in the community. Law enforcement must not forget the characteristics of individuals with autism when responding to calls. For example, if they receive a call for assistance involving a stranger sitting on a porch swing or rocking chair or looking into the windows of a house, it may not indicate a person on drugs or a potential burglar, but rather an individual with autism who just wanted to self-stimulate through rhythmatic motion or to see what was inside the house. In another example, a complaint from a store owner of a person rearranging items or display objects may not be a shoplifter, but, instead, an autistic individual engaging in the obsessive-compulsive behavior of "ordering" those items in some sequence that other individuals may not notice.

While responding officers always must consider their own safety, as well as that of others, in such circumstances, their presence may cause further inappropriate responses by an autistic individual. Persons with autism do not know the implications of their behavior--they do not understand the consequences of their actions, especially aggressive actions. An officer's approach may cause people with this condition to flee, sometimes failing to respond to an order to stop. Other autistic individuals may react by dropping to the floor or ground and rocking back and forth, averting eye contact with the officer. Officers should not interpret an autistic individual's failure to respond to orders or questions as a lack of cooperation or as a reason for increased force.

Although autistic individuals are usually self-abusing, they may escalate into tantrum-like behavior (e.g., screaming, pushing, kicking, hitting) from fear, frustration, or confusion. They can not conceptualize meanness or acts of purposeful injury to others. They just want the circumstances to change but do not know how to implement that change. This presents an obvious dilemma to responding officers.

What are Some Common Signs of Autism?

In the case of autism, there are no external indicators. Individuals with autism look like any other person; however, visual cues exist that an observant officer can use to help indicate they are dealing with an autistic individual. These often subtle cues may depend on the functionality level of the autistic person. Recognition of the behavioral symptoms of autism and the techniques of approach can reduce the risk factors of such encounters. These risks include the physical safety of the officers and of the individual with autism, as well as the resulting litigation from inappropriate responses to the incident by the officers.

Among the most difficult assistance calls are those that concern the welfare of children. When an officer responds to the scene of a complaint of possible child abuse and observes an adult wrestling with a screaming, struggling, red-faced child, the officer must use split-second judgment. Is this a possible kidnaping? Is this a blatant case of child abuse? Or could it be an extremely painful episode for the parent of a child with special needs who, for whatever reason, is out of control? While the officer has a responsibility to resolve the call, patience and understanding will help reduce the stress for all involved, including the child who would be further traumatized if the officer acts aggressively against the parent.

One characteristic of autistic individuals, especially children, is their propensity to run. They do not believe that they are running away, but possibly just returning to a favorite place or going back to look at something attractive. They may not be lost and may be very content where they are; however, to the general public, unattended children are cause for concern.

Police unwittingly may charge parents of autistic children with endangerment, which forces them to attend hearings to retrieve their bewildered children from protective services. Moreover, a child found alone may not respond to an officer's efforts and consolation because they are quite content to stay where the officer found them. Individuals with autism, particularly children, usually cannot process multiple stimuli at one time. Bright lights, sirens, K-9 partners, different smells, loud voices, or attempts at consolation may push an individual with autism to react in a way that may make it impossible to regain their attention and may jeopardize the safety of those involved in the incident. For example, an autistic person may abruptly flee into busy traffic, because they do not realize the inherent risk in that act.

What is an Appropriate Response?

Law enforcement officers are trained to handle unexpected situations they may encounter on routine calls. By understanding the nature of autism, responding officers can manage calls involving individuals with this condition more effectively. Officers can use the acronym AUTISM to help them remember the methodology they should use when dealing with individuals with autism. They should--

 

Approach the person in a quiet, non-threatening manner. Because autistic persons may be hypersensitive to stimuli, officers should attempt to avoid quick motions and gestures that an autistic person may perceive, even remotely, as threatening.

Understand that touching the autistic person may cause a protective "fight or flight" reaction. Officers should never touch an autistic person on the shoulders or near the face. Autistic hypersensitivity includes being touched and even extends to invasions of their personal space.

Talk to the person in a moderate and calm voice. Although officers may have to repeat their directions or questions several times, they should be patient and wait for answers. Speaking loudly will not help and may even be viewed as threatening.

Instructions should be simple and direct with no use of slang. An autistic person will take an officer's statements literally. "Do you think that's cool?" or "Up against the wall!" probably will cause confusion and result in an inappropriate or unexpected response. Officers should use specific commands, such as, "stand up" or "go to the car, now" to reduce the chance of confusion.

Seek all indicators to evaluate the situation as it unfolds.

Maintain a safe distance until any inappropriate behaviors lessen, but remain alert to the possibility of outbursts or impulsive acts.
 

What If a Crime Has Been Committed?

If officers take an individual into custody and even remotely suspect that the person may be developmentally disabled or autistic, to reduce the risk of abuse, injury, or both, they should segregate the individual and never place them in the general incarcerated population before a mental health professional can evaluate them. Once professionals have determined that the individual is developmentally disabled, officers should contact the prosecutor's office for further advice or directions.

Oftentimes, individuals with autism confess to crimes they did not commit because of their desire to please and willingness to accept an authority figure's version of events, even if untrue, or because of their inappropriate responses or interpretations to questions from the interviewer. This response often results from "conditioning" they received throughout their lives by caregivers.

The interviewer must ask specific questions toward what information is sought and avoid ambiguity. For example, if the interviewer asks, "Did you take the money?" the person with autism most probably will say "Yes," whether or not the individual actually took it. Investigators should ask a more clear question, such as, "What did you do?" allowing time for the individual to provide a response. If the investigator asks, "Were you with your family or John?" the autistic person may respond, "John" because that was the last choice of the sequence. If the investigator asked the question again, but reversing the order, the autistic person may answer, "my family" for the same reason. Neither may be correct. Investigators should ask a more specific question such as, "Who were you with?" thus reducing the influence of suggestion to the subject.

Conclusion

As the American work force becomes more diverse and requires more professional law enforcement, officers in the 21st century will confront situations that demand high levels of performance and insight resulting from more comprehensive training. Dealing with individuals with autism and other developmental disabilities requires officers to have additional training to handle these situations. When responding to calls for assistance involving individuals who are autistic, education, perception, and understanding can help officers avoid situations that can become unpleasant or even dangerous. Remembering the adage that no call is "routine" will help ensure that the resourceful officer will keep their composure and evaluate the sensory data or cues on the scene. This behavior will resolve the incident in the best spirit of their duty to protect the public, especially those who cannot protect themselves.

Mr. Debbaudt heads a private detective agency and trains police officers nationwide on recognizing and responding to persons with autism.

Dr. Darla Rothman is a curriculum specialist and certified instructor with the Maryland Police and Correctional Training Commissions.

Endnotes

(1.) K. Curry, M. Posluszny, and S. Kraska, "Training Criminal Justice personnel to Recognize Offenders with Disabilities," Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services News in Print, (Winter 1993).

(2.) The Autism Society of America, http:// www.autism-socitey.org; accessed December 12, 2000.

(3.) Based on author research and survey of law enforcement agencies.

(4.) Supra note 2.

(5.) D. Debbaudt, (handout developed for the Wayne County, Michigan, Workshop Series for Trainers and Officers of Law Enforcement), September 21, 1996.

Indicators that an Individual May Have Autism: [5]

COPYRIGHT 2001 Federal Bureau of Investigation
 

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Autism & Law Enforcement Awareness in Virginia

Commonwealth Autism Service provides sponsorship and logistical support to train police officers in the understanding of Autism Spectrum Disorders. 

The program teaches police and caregivers how to work together to prevent unfortunate situations in a law enforcement contact.  The 2 hour course is taught across the Commonwealth by Nick Proffitt, an Advisory Council member who is a Law Enforcement officer, and a parent of a child with Autism.

Nick Proffitt will be speaking at the following locations: