SAND SPRINGS, Okla. — The Sand Springs community now has an accessible resource to assist first responders when addressing their family members with special needs. The Special Needs Alert and Identification program, S.A.ID for short, is a voluntary online form that gives officers information on individuals to give them a jump start in reunifying them with their family.
Sergeant Kyle Alexander with the Sand Springs Police Department has served his community for the last 25 years. After responding to an extensive amount of calls, he wanted to implement a resource that could help the entire department respond as quickly and effectively to every single incident.
"If they voluntarily participate to sign up for this program, we can do a search for that alert and pull up every name record and kind of go through and try to find out who that person is so we can quickly reunify them with their family," said Alexander.
He gathered inspiration from his own life and training, with a nephew diagnosed with Asperger's Syndrome. Alexander said while the department does train for special need's response, with new officers being added all the time, it's a critical part of community outreach.
For parents like Dreama Kame, something like this allows her to breathe a sigh of relief. Kame has a five-year-old son on the Autism Spectrum who is non-verbal.
"What if he were to wander off one day, or venture off, or hides or who knows what happens, anything can happen and all it takes is one time," said Kame. "A program like this just helps raise awareness for the children, and then it keeps officers and any form of first responder aware of what could or couldn’t happen, it just helps prevent incidents from becoming those scares."
Her son Bryce stopped communicating between 12 and 18 months. At around 2 and a half, they received a formal diagnosis.
Kame signed Bryce up for the S.A.ID program within days of it being available. She said she hopes if anything were to ever happen, this will give first responders the tools they need to understand how to care for her son.
"My son can be the most affectionate person in the world, but if he doesn't want you in his personal space, he will try to push you away," said Kame. "If for instance, an officer or a first responder did not understand that trying to hold him in any capacity would be harmful to him mentally, then he could begin to fight... In lack of understanding, you may think its someone being uncooperative, but it's the child non-verbally communicating 'I don't want you touching me.'"
That was another goal of Sgt. Alexander, that this would alleviate unnecessary use of force, and keep both officers and citizens safe.
The form to sign a loved one up for the S.A.ID program is available on the Sand Springs Police Department's website.
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