| 6/15/2009 3:46:00 PM | Email this article • Print this article |
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| Josh Stehr, a deputy sheriff with Goodhue County, carries the antenna and receiver authorities use to track and find children with autism. |
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| Kirby Long, Stewartville’s community oriented policing (COPS) deputy, far left, was on hand for a training session that included authorities from eight area counties last week. Deputies learned more about technology designed to track and find children with autism. |
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Technology enables officers to find children with autism
Mark Peterson
Editor
About two years ago, a 7-year-old Wisconsin boy with autism wandered away from home.
Authorities conducted a massive search, even using helicopters provided by the Wisconsin and Michigan National Guard.
After five days, search dogs found the boy's body in a pond not far from his home in Saratoga, Wis.
Brad and Joanie Trahan of Rochester were profoundly affected by the Wisconsin boy's death. The Trahans, whose 9-year-old son Reece has autism, founded the RT Autism Awareness Foundation, Inc.
The Trahans were on hand last week as deputies from Olmsted County and seven surrounding counties tested technology that enables law enforcement officials to more easily track and find children with autism.
"We're so excited," Brad Trahan said. "We're very passionate about this. We're really excited that seven counties are on board."
The training session for what is officially known as Project Lifesaver was held at Rochester's McQuillan Park. A reporter from KAAL-TV, Channel 6, playing the part of a child with autism, wore a band around his wrist and pretended to be lost, hiding in a heavily wooded area.
Deputies split up into three teams of two officers each. Each team carried a receiver and an antenna and listened for chirping noises to lead them to the subject. As the officers zeroed in on the subject, the chirping noises became more and more intense. In the end, the first group found the reporter in eight minutes, the second took 12 minutes and the third took about 17 minutes.
Kirby Long, Stewartville's community oriented policing (COPS) deputy, attended last week's training. Long praised Project Lifesaver, saying that it gives parents of children with autism a greater sense of security.
"It reduces the manpower necessary to find a child," Long said. "The average find time is under 30 minutes. We need two to four people to do the searches rather than calling the fire departments and all the other people we would use."
Four individuals are wearing Project Lifesaver wrist bands in Stewartville, Long said. Three of them are children with autism and a fourth has special needs and likes to wander.
"Autistic children and patients with autism are nonverbal," Long said. "If they wander away from home, they aren't able to tell people where they live. Also, autistic children are drawn to water, and many of them don't know how to swim."
Project Lifesaver is raising awareness about children with autism, Long said.
"In some neighborhoods there are signs notifying the public that a child with autism lives in the area," he said. "Autistic children don't recognize danger. They'll put their hands on a hot stove. They don't understand the danger element of the things they're doing."
Think Mutual Bank of Rochester donated $10,500 to help pay for Project Lifesaver's equipment. Team 25: The Shjon Podein Children's Foundation and the RT Autism Foundation combined to pay the other $10,500 for the technology, which will now be used in Olmsted, Goodhue, Wabasha, Houston, Fillmore, Dodge, Freeborn and Mower counties.
Brad Trahan is grateful for the technology that enables officers to quickly find children with autism. Since 1999, authorities have conducted 2,000 technology-enhanced searches for autistic children, he said.
"They were all rescues," he said. "There was not a single recovery."
In all, 55 children with autism in Olmsted County are wearing the Project Lifesaver wrist bands, Trahan said.
On March 31, 2007, the Trahans' son, Reece, was matched with Pudge, a service dog from Canada. Reece and Pudge are now inseparable.
"He goes wherever Reece goes," Trahan said. "Pudge has had a calming effect on Reece. Reece is sleeping better and is much more relaxed."
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