Moore PD Program Helps Officers Better Respond to People With Special Needs

A program within the Moore Police Department is helping them better serve their residents with autism. 

The Special Needs Alert and Identification Program has been in service for nearly two years, the Chief of Police said as it’s taken off, they are hearing positive feedback from the community and officers. 

“We’ve got people with special needs, elderly people with dementia, we’ve got some people on there with traumatic brain injuries,” said Tammy Koehn, the Communications Director for the Moore Police Department. 

She said their Special Needs Alert and Identification Program serves as another tool for families that for far too long was unavailable. 

“They fill out a form and when they submit the form it comes directly to me in dispatch. We take the form with all their personal information which includes their name, age, stuff like that but it also includes things like what they are afraid of, if they have a wandering tendency, where they like to hide, what brings them comfort,” said Koehn.  

“Officers respond to several different calls, it’s a very complex and difficult job and you never know what you’re getting into so when our call center, our 911 center, can take information in and push that our to our officer the more information we can give to the officer before they arrive on scene,” said Todd Gibson, the Moore Chief Of Police. 

According to the department, an individual with autism is seven times more likely to come in contact with first responders. 

They said having information like this can be the difference between a successful or unsuccessful call.

“What the S.A.I.D. program allows them to do is take specific measures to already start defusing, de-escalating that event even before they arrive,” said Gibson. 

“It benefits both the officers in the field and the families before we didn’t have a way to help these families out and I think it brings them a sense of security and comfort knowing that we are trying to get this out there to our officers and it makes them feel safe,” said Koehn. 

The Director of Communications said it was a personal connection that inspired her to help launch the program. 

“I have a grandson that has autism, they live out of state but there is no program like that. He is older and doing much better but as a young child he was a runner and non-verbal and there was just no way to let anyone in the community know. This gives us the resources we haven’t had before so it’s nice,” she said. 

The department wants people to know that all the information is stored in a secure database and only shared within the department. 

Those that would like to sign up can do so on the City of Moore website.