PENFIELD, N.Y. – A 5-year-old girl with autism is back home safe after she wandered out of her bedroom and out of her home in the middle of the night. She was found sleeping on a couch inside a nearby home in Penfield Monday morning.
As the autism liaison in the Monroe County Sheriff’s Office, Sgt. Brendan Hurley works with deputies to ensure they know the best ways to interact with kids and adults who may be on the spectrum. “Just slow down a little bit, give them a little more time to process and answer questions because you know how we are, we get on an accident and it’s like…”are you hurt? What happened?”–this and that, it’s 17 questions for you right away and we want the answers now but someone who has a processing disorder, they’re going to take a little bit more time,” Sgt. Hurley says.
On Monday morning, deputies took that time as they responded to a call for the missing 5-year-old. Her parents told them right away she has autism.
While the Sheriff’s Department brought the bloodhound, drones and throngs of deputies out to search for her, they did it quietly without flashing lights and yelling her name through a bullhorn. “The radio squawking, the lights, the sirens, that can force them to run away, it can be just too much and triggering for them so, it’s teaching our people when they first deal with mom or dad or the caretaker, what are their triggers? What are their likes? What would help them come to me, instead of running toward the water, things like that,” Sgt. Hurley explains.
The Sheriff’s Office also participates in what’s known as Project Lifesaver. Those who enroll wear a small transmitter that emits an individualized frequency signal. If they go missing, the department has technology to locate the position of the tracker.
While most parents can track their children a phone and an air tag any time day or night, in an emergency, every resource matters. “There’s spots, there’s dead spots where the GPS does not work and that’s where this will fill in…Right now we have about 33 families signed up but again, it’s children to elderly. It’s people with dementia, it’s anyone who elopes, anybody who has that fight or flight kick in and they just decide to run,” Sgt. Hurley says.
Even if you’re not interested in Project Lifesaver, it doesn’t hurt to let the Sheriff’s Department or your local police know that you have someone in your family who may wander. “Come to one of the substations, introduce yourself, if you’re willing to give us a little bit of information, all it takes is a picture, name, address, whatever you’re comfortable with giving us so, that we can help you in the future,” Sgt. Hurley suggests.
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