Autism registration forms aid police

SWAMPSCOTT – After hearing about the Swampscott Police Department?s new autism registration forms, parent Michelle Reed was ready and willing to sign up.The forms, available for free on a volunteer basis at the Humphrey Street station, are used in case of an incident or emergency, such as a missing person. They contain personal information about the individual with autism, including life-threatening medical concerns as well as the best methods of interaction, such as using a low voice or not getting too close during a conversation. Parents may also submit a photo to be kept with the form.Reed and her husband, Jeff, have a 12-year-old daughter, Natalia, who has autism and intractable seizures. Their daughter has a tendency to wander and is attracted to water, Reed said, and she keeps locks and alarms on doors in her home as a precaution.?I?m very appreciative of (the police) being supportive of parents that have these children,” Reed said.Sgt. Joe Kable, one of three in the department leading the program, said the forms “give the officers the tools to understand what they?re dealing with, to de-escalate a situation or maybe to question the person in a slightly different way.”Kable is joined by Det. Ted Delano, the department?s family service officer, and Det. Rose Cheever, a school resource officer who has a sister with autism.When a call comes into the station, if the family has filled out a form, Kable said, the family?s address will be flagged in the computer, and the responding officer will know to look in the blue binder where the forms are stored to get more information on the individual in question.The forms are not shared with anyone outside the station, Kable said.?The information they provide is 100 percent confidential and secured,” he said. Cheever added, “I think some people think the minute they give you information, it?s going to be shared all over, and they?re going to be getting crazy emails, but it?s not. It?s kept in-house.”Reed said she was not reluctant to share information with the police about her daughter because she thinks it will contribute to her child?s safety.?I want them to know this house,” she said. “I want them to know my daughter.”The idea for the forms came out of a training session, which Cheever, Delano and Kable attended in December, giving police officers more information about autism at the office of Essex County District Attorney Jonathan Blodgett in Salem. Cheever said she was happy the forms came to fruition.?I would probably say it?s something that?s probably been on everybody?s mind,” she said.Cheever said the program will probably be slow-moving at first, and as of late January, fewer than five families had returned forms to the department. But she hopes with outreach, like spreading the word through the school department, that more families will be open to participating.Kable said the information on the forms would be most helpful in the case of a missing individual, because the forms detail the person?s favorite locations.?In the case of a wanderer, it would of tremendous value of knowing what they?re attracted to, what they look for. That?s certainly one of the biggest areas where it has the most potential to really save a life.”