Illinois creates 911 service with people with disabilities in mind

From The AP:

SPRINGFIELD, Ill. - When 6-year-old Rhiannon Schmakel wandered away from home, her mother was terrified almost to the point of being sick. The girl suffered from autism, couldn't talk and was easily frightened by strangers and loud noises.

But Rochelle Feller-Schmakel took some comfort from the fact that Itasca police already knew about her daughter's autism -- including the best way to approach without scaring her -- through a department program that allows families to share information on medical problems and disabilities.

Once the alert went out, every officer would have all the details a single glance at a computer screen. Instead of interviewing a panicky mother, they could get to work looking for Rhiannon, who was soon found playing on a nearby railroad track.

Now similar services are being set up throughout Illinois under a new "premise alert program" that allows families to contact their local police or fire department and submit information about someone who may need special attention in an emergency: a child with autism, a parent with Alzheimer's, a teenager who can't hear.

"I think it's fantastic," said Feller-Schmakel. "In my opinion, it makes those first responders that much faster."

The program, signed into law Aug. 28, says that if a 911 call center has the proper technology, it must accept information on people with disabilities and share that information with police, firefighters and paramedics in an emergency.

That way, police will know they might encounter a deaf man who won't hear their sirens and commands. Firefighters will know if a burning home is likely to contain someone who can't get out.

Itasca deputy police chief Dean Myles, who serves on the board of the Autism Society of Illinois, said the service could help prevent potentially fatal encounters between police and disabled people, including one in 2005 that killed Hansel Cunningham of Des Plaines.

After police responded to a call that he'd attacked a caregiver at the home where he was living, Cunningham, 30, ran from police, who wound up using pepper spray and a Taser, tackling Cunningham and handcuffing him. He suffocated to death while being held face down on the ground.

Myles said the police should have known more about autism and what they might encounter during the call.

"Would they possibly have handled it differently? Absolutely, I think they would have," he said.

In April, Chicago police tried to question 16-year-old Oscar Guzman while he was standing outside his family's restaurant. Relatives said Guzman, who has autism, wouldn't answer questions and eventually walked away from the police.

The officers followed, prompting Guzman to run into the restaurant, yelling "I'm a special boy!" as he fled. Relatives said one of the officers hit Guzman with a baton, causing a serious gash.

The service won't be available everywhere because a computer-aided dispatch system is required to call up the information and send it to emergency personnel.

State officials don't know exactly how many 911 centers have these systems, but they're usually available in areas with what's known as "enhanced" 911 service. As of October 2008, 85 of Illinois' 102 counties had enhanced 911 service but just a few local agencies have offered the alert program.

Advocates of the alert system say only one other state, Pennsylvania, offers the service so widely.

Susan Rzucidlo, the mother of a son with autism, helped set up the Pennsylvania program last year. It's voluntary for police departments, but she said most have started offering the service. Now the challenge is making sure families know they can submit the safety information.

"I guarantee you we still have pockets of people who don't know about it, but we're getting there," Rzucidlo said.

Elsewhere, some counties and cities have set up individual programs. That's been the practice in Illinois, where just a few local agencies have offered the service.

Two years ago, Rhiannon and her parents moved from the Itasca area to Joliet, which didn't provide any way to share disability information with emergency personnel. Now that the law is taking the program statewide, Feller-Schmakel is eager to register Rhiannon as soon as possible and regain a little bit of security.

"As a parent, the worst possible things come to mind for a child who can't speak, who can't ask for help," she said. "In the middle of being panicked, to not have to explain is very comforting."