Program Prepares Authorities to Interact with Individuals with Special Needs

Kayla Desroches/KMXT

This year, the Kodiak Police Department developed a program which will help local authorities to respond to situations involving those with developmental challenges.

Police Chief Ronda Wallace explains Kodiak CARE, which stands for Child and Resident Encounters, is a voluntary program for those who choose to enroll.

“We collect vital information about those individuals. That information is shared with law enforcement, EMS, fire personnel, so that when we respond to an incident and to best serve the individual that we’re in contact with, officers get that information early on so that we know who we’re going to be in contact with.”

She says authorities will have access to information which will help them get to know the individuals they meet and interact with them in a positive way.

“The information that comes to us is information about triggers, calming tactics for them, predispositions, caregiver information. If they can’t hear very well, we know then we need to maybe say, ‘Do you have hearing aids?’ or ‘Do you sign?’ Have those things in mind.”

She explains, with the information on file, they can also sooner figure out how to contact caregivers and what steps to take from first encounter. For instance, whether to wait with the individual or to take them home.

Wallace says KPD began working on the program in January and collaborated with Hope Community Resources, parents and guardians to pinpoint questions that satisfied both parties.

“I feel really good about it. I feel it’s a very positive program. Our law enforcement officers are excited about the program, it’s been in play already and it gave them that information, front loaded, so that they knew how they were going to respond with the individual that they were in contact with, so I’m very hopeful that this is going to continue on and be a positive program in our community.”

Wallace says additionally, officers have been receiving training from Hope and other organizations that specialize in autism.

“So that we’re better educating our officers, ‘cause that’s part of what we found was that their training was not  – although they had training at the academy – it was limited, and so we found that as a gap that we needed to fill, and we’ve been working to do that.”

She says in the future KPD would like to expand the CARE program to other vulnerable individuals. For instance, those with Alzheimer’s.