The county police department will welcome residents to its Public Safety Training Academy on Thursday for Autism/IDD (Intellectual, Developmental Disabilities) Night Out, an evening of caregiving education and interaction between disabled residents and officers.
The 5th annual event will feature food, face painting, tours of emergency vehicles and a meet and greet with therapy dogs.
Representatives from Autism Speaks, Pathfinders for Autism and the Down Syndrome Network of Montgomery County will offer general safety resources to caregivers.
The academy is at 8751 Snouffer School Road in Gaithersburg. The free event is from 6-9 p.m. and will be moved indoors if there are weather concerns.
The event represents a broad view of the Montgomery County Police Autism/IDD Outreach program, founded in 2005 to provide education, empowerment and positive responses for disabled residents and their caregivers, program coordinator Officer Laurie Reyes said.
“It culminates what our Montgomery County Police Autism/IDD outreach program does all year,” Reyes said. “The event lets us not only showcase our program and the resources we have as a police department, but it also allows for us to have introductions and interactions.”
Residents with medical conditions like Alzheimer’s disease, autism, and Down syndrome have a tendency to wander, according to the department, and county officers respond to an average of two such cases a week.
Since 2010, all county police recruits receive four hours of instruction on disabilities, Reyes said. This includes information about search practices, but also strategies for having positive, safe and effective interactions.
The program also uses self-advocates to help teach the class, specifically autistic residents who can provide additional insight into policing disabled members of the community.
Officers from each police district will be at the event.
“It brings a familiarity with families of those affected by autism and the first responders, they have a chance to interact together,” Autism Speaks Field Development Manager Taylor Elkow said. “Children and adults with autism, they get to see the first responders and their equipment, police cars.”
The Center for Disease Control’s biennial update in 2018 of autism prevalence in children showed a 15% increase from 2012 to 2014, up to 1 in 59 children diagnosed with autism spectrum disorder. When the county outreach program began in 2005, that number was 1 in 125 children.
The growing prevalence of the disorder has put an increased responsibility on the department to be prepared for interactions with disabled residents, Reyes said. She added that officers are now equipped to handle these cases, and caregivers are urged to reach out with any issue.
“We’ve created a culture of awareness, that parents now know that it’s okay to call 911 if their loved one is missing,” Reyes said. “We encourage them to call 911 if their loved one is missing. It really creates a sense of understanding.”
Charlie Wright can be reached at charlie.wright@moco360.media
