Missouri bill would expand the Amber Alert Criteria

It appears that a proposed change to Missouri law would allow missing children with autism, who were not abducted to be included in the state's Amber Alert system.

HB 1521 -- Amber Alert and Silver Alert System

This bill expands the Amber Alert System to include missing
endangered adults, specifies the criteria for being considered a
missing endangered adult, and changes its name to the Amber Alert
and Silver Alert System.

A wanderer with autism would meet the criteria for an "endangered person" per the verbiage of the bill.

"Endangered person", an individual who:

• (a) Does not meet the criteria for an Amber alert; and
  
• (b) Is missing under unexplained, involuntary, or suspicious circumstances; and
• (c) Is believed to be in danger because of age, guardianship, health, mental or physical disability, environment or weather conditions; or
• (d) Is in the company of a potentially dangerous person or some other factor exists that may put the person in peril.

Canadian National Autism Foundation: Amber Alert GPS Information Seminar

Canadian National Autism Foundation
In Partnership with
Amber Alert GPS Canada Inc.

Presents

Amber Alert GPS Information Seminar

* Learn how the GPS system works
* Personalized Monitoring of protection areas
* Learn the features and capabilities of the GPS
* Find out where on the person it can be placed

Guest Speakers:
Amber Alert GPS Canada – Kenneth M. Corey, President
Greetings From Hamilton Councilor Terry Whitehead
Greetings From Hamilton Police Service (Representative)

Date : February 25th, 2010
Seminar Start Time: 7:00-8:30pm
Question Period: 8:30-9:00pm

PLACE
Division 2 Hamilton Police Service--East End Station
2825 King Street East
Hamilton, Ontario

MUST RSVP VERY LIMITED SPOTS AVAILABLE

Contact CNAF: Tina Fougere
Tel: 905-643-7183 Email: tina.f@sympatico.co

Project Manager: Carol Ann Naranjit
Tel: 905-920-6367 Email: TheHubManagement@hotmail.com

Autism: GPS can save lives

Good article, but an Amber Alert would not have been issued since they are for abductions only.

GPS firm says autistic child’s death preventable

John Fulton, 12, was found dead near his Grand Forks, B.C., home on Monday, August 17, 2009. (Handout photo)

By Darcy Wintonyk, ctvbc.ca

The death of an autistic child in British Columbia’s southern Interior was preventable, says a company that lets parents track their kids using GPS technology.

The body of 12-year-old John Fulton was found in a neighbour’s condo two days after he disappeared from his home in Grand Forks. A 42-year-old woman is in police custody.

Leslie Lauren, the vice president of Amber Alert GPS, says the boy could have been found by using one of its tiny wireless tracking devices — which can track a child to within three metres.

“If the GPS was on John at the time it doesn’t go to sleep so his mother would know within 60 seconds where he is and it would have been prevented,” Lauren told ctvbc.ca.

Fulton’s family has publicly criticized the B.C. RCMP for not issuing an Amber Alert after his disappearance — saying the child wouldn’t have run away from home because his autism prevents him from leaving his comfort zone.

Lauren says GPS assists the North American Amber Alert program by making it easier for parents and law authorities to find a child — before the child abduction Amber Alert is issued. In this case, she says, an Amber Alert wouldn’t be needed because of an SOS function that allows parents to listen to what is going on around their child.

“So while they were trying to look for him his parents and the police would have been able to listen to his surroundings without the abductor and John knowing they were listening,” she said.

“We could show police his exact location so they could send an immediate response.”

{more ... full story at The Autism News}

New Albany Police Department to send out automated missing person calls

New Albany Police Department to send out automated missing person calls

National program offers service for free to local law enforcement

An automated telephone service used by the New Albany Police Department for the first time last week could save lives and conserve police manpower.

NAPD recently collaborated with a Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based organization called A Child Is Missing, or ACIM, to begin notifying people in a community when a child or elderly person goes missing.

Hundreds of automated calls went out to residents in New Albany last Thursday when an elderly woman was reported missing. The woman had wandered into a hospital and was safe, according to police, but those kinds of situations are frightening for families.

“We get a lot of reports that don’t always meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert, for missing children, or the SILVER Alert when an elderly person goes missing,” NAPD Capt. Keith Whitlow said. “In a lot of cases, we have absolutely nothing to go on. This will help us get information out there right away, and it’s completely free.”

The project is funded by the federal government but does not cost anything to the local police departments that use it.

When a missing persons report is taken, ACIM is notified of the person’s physical description, clothing worn and location where the person was last seen. A customized alert message is recorded and transmitted to telephone subscribers in the area where a missing person was last known to have been.

As many as 1,000 calls can be placed in 60 seconds. ACIM reports that 98 percent of residents and businesses answering the calls will listen to the message.

The organization has been in existence since 1997, but began a national expansion project in 2002, Vice President Claudia Corrigan said. ACIM began in Indiana in 2004.

Corrigan praised NAPD for contacting them and asking if they could use the service. She said they have had 41 “successes” in Indiana, most recently Jan. 25 in Muncie. They define a success as anytime law enforcement tells them that their alert caused a missing person to be found.

When someone with a mental illness or disability goes missing, time may be even more important.

[FULL ARTICLE]

AutismLink to Present WV Teen Missing for Days with Project Lifesaver Bracelet

PITTSBURGH, Oct. 31 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- AutismLink, one of the nation's largest autism advocacy organizations and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh will be on hand at Morgantown High School on Thursday, November 1, 2007 at 5 p.m. to present the family of former missing autistic West Virginia teen Jacob Allen with a project lifesaver Elsa Peretti Open Heart bracelet.

Jacob Allen, 18, caught the attention of the nation when he wandered off during a family hiking trip in the remote forests of West Virginia in the Dolly Sods area and was lost for nearly 4 days. Allen, who has autism spectrum disorder, was found in good condition nearly four days after his disappearance.

"We wanted to make sure this doesn't happen again," said AutismLink Director Cindy Tiffany 1837 circle clasp bracelet. "Our organization has given away over a dozen Project Lifesaver Bracelets over the past year to needy families. We feel very strongly that children with autism who wander or who don't have a good understanding of safety should be fitted with these bracelets to avoid incidents such as these."

Project Lifesaver Bracelets emit a tracking signal that is easily detectable by ground or air search crews.

The bracelet, which will be presented tomorrow evening by Ms. Waeltermann, will be donated to the Allen Family by AutismLink and the Autism Center of Pittsburgh.

"We are so very happy that this came to a happy Return to Tiffany mini heart tags bracelet," Waeltermann said. "Someone was looking out for that boy. He has a guardian angel."

SOURCE AutismLink

Autism Safety & Risk Management ... Wandering

Autism Safety & Risk Management, Part 2

Dennis Debbaubt began his Autism Risk & Safety Management Seminar with a powerful analogy: How many people wore their seatbelts on the way to this seminar? How many people just put it on without even thinking about it? We don’t think about the fact that we might get in an accident - we just put it on because it’s part of our daily safety routine, like locking doors and looking both ways. We didn’t arrive at the seminar and say, “Well, that was a waste of time, putting on my seatbelt. I didn’t even get in an accident!” And we’re still going to wear our seatbelts the next time we get in the car. Likewise, managing risk for our children is part of our daily safety routine. We don’t have incidents occurring every day, but we still need to have those risk management efforts in place. And in many cases, there is more that we can be doing, even in our own home.

One of the biggest risks for people with autism is wandering, whether they’re at home or they’re away from home. I’ve experienced this with my own son over the years, and wish that I’d had more knowledge of the things I could have done to prepare for such a situation before it occurred. I still would have panicked all the times it happened, but at least I would have had more of a plan in place. The following are some tips to manage wandering and also address in-home safety issues:

• Secure the home. As I discovered, resourceful autistic preschoolers can quickly move a chair over to doors with locks strategically placed “out of their reach.” Thus, I learned to keep all chairs away from the vicinity of the door, and to move the locks to the very top of the door. Dennis also recommends that when you have to put extra locks on your exterior doors to make sure to upgrade your smoke and carbon monoxide alarms. Put a bell or alarm system on the doors, or - ideally - have a professional locksmith or burglar alarm company install a system. Use technology to your advantage. Have stickers put on all windows near exterior doors alerting first responders that there is an individual with autism in the house. (See ASA’s Safe & Sound program for stickers and more tips.)

Full Article at TEENAUTISM.COM

Teen with lost in woods for 4 days ... a happy ending.

As the days stretched on and scores of rescuers came back from their grid searches of the West Virginia wilderness with nothing to report, Karen Allen’s hopes of finding her autistic son, Jacob, alive never faltered.

The weather, chilly at first, grew warmer by the day, and that to her was a sign that a greater power was watching out for Jacob.

“We knew that God had something in this for us,” she told TODAY co-host Matt Lauer during a live interview via satellite on Friday. “Every day the weather got warmer and warmer and warmer — it was as if God breathed his warm breath down on us.”

Story continues here ...

Include Autistic children for automatic amber alerts(or create a security alert for missing Autistic individuals) when missing!

Petition the government of Canada to include children with autism in Amber Alerts HERE.

To: Canadian Federal Government

This is a petition from individuals of the Facebook group "Include Autistic children for automatic amber alerts when missing!",who feel those diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder should be automaticly added to Amber Alerts or If the Canadian Government could create a security alert for Autistic individuals especially children who go missing.With Autism Spectrum Disorder the hormone called dopamine(Dopamine is a chemical messenger (neurotransmitter) that is not very common in the brain. Scarcely more than 0.3% of the neurons in the brain produce dopamine. Nevertheless, these neurons play an essential role in many of our behaviours that should be outputed from the frontal lobe is not.)This hormone acts as a monitor for our behaviour and so since ASD individuals lack the hormone dopamine they have no concept of dangerous behaviour,dangerous people or dangerous situations .Some ASD children are in the 30 percentile who lack social boundries and will hug anyone affectionately ,and go with any stranger which is dangerous and a scary thought for parents who try to protect them.Because ASD is a neurological disorder and also deals with sensory overloads and other sensory issues they can't always wear tracking devices because it is restrictive or uncomfortable to some ASD people.We need to speak for our ASD children since most are non-verbal and cannot advocate for themselves. A petition group "Include Autistic children for automatic amber alerts when missing!",was set up on Facebook and we have managed to rally over 2000 members .
We the undersigned agree with the above statement.