Six Maryland jurisdictions, including Howard County, already have a voluntary 911 registry, intended to help police handle calls that involve people with a range of disabilities, including autism.
Now Montgomery County is continuing to discuss the merits of similar legislation, where people could sign up to provide information to police and first responders ahead of time. The idea is that when those first responders arrive at a scene, they would know, for example, that a person at the address is deaf or might have delayed response times or be nonverbal.
On Monday, members of two Montgomery County Council committees 鈥� Public Safety and Health and Human Services 鈥� met to discuss some of the issues that have cropped up.
Council member Gabe Albornoz, who is also the chair of the Health and Human Services Committee, had questions about how the information would be provided to first responders during an emergency.
鈥淗ow is that communicated to officers who are actually responding and who are on the ground?鈥� he said.
Another issue is privacy. Montgomery County Police Chief Marcus Jones explained that police and first responder dispatches are broadcast over the air on police channels, and the public has access to that information on scanners and via the internet.
Council member Laurie-Anne Sayles said that gave her pause.
鈥淚 wouldn鈥檛 want something that I鈥檓 dealing with, involving a child, broadcast publicly and it ends up on Twitter 鈥� and that child has to go back in to school,鈥� she said. Sayles added she鈥檇 want further discussion on how that could be handled.
Upon arrival to a potential scene, Jones said, 鈥淲e would have to give instructions to responding personnel. They would have to look at their computer-aided dispatch on the screen.”
Council member Sidney Katz, who chairs the Public Safety Committee, wondered how that would affect response times and said that is something that would have to be explained to the public. He imagined that could generate complaints from people who see an officer arriving to an emergency, stopping to read something in their patrol car.
鈥淓ven though it鈥檚 for a legitimate reason,鈥� Katz said, it could seem like an unnecessary delay in an emergency 鈥渨hen every second seems like a month.鈥�
Assistant Police Chief Darren Francke said, if enacted, the bill could provide 鈥渞eally extraordinary鈥� information for officers who would have a chance to 鈥渢hink through鈥� their training while heading to a call for service, and how they would put that into effect at the scene they are about to encounter.
In written testimony, the Silver Spring Justice Coalition opposed the bill, stating that, 鈥淥fficers must be prepared to interact with disabled residents regardless of what information is in a registry, and the burden should not be on people with disabilities to provide this information in advance.鈥�
Jeneva Stone, who described herself as a Montgomery County parent in her written testimony, also opposes the bill. Stone said she and her adult son 鈥� whom she described as having 鈥渕ultiple disabilities鈥� 鈥� are members of an organization, 鈥淧eople on the GO,鈥� that raised concerns about statewide legislation in Annapolis during the last session.
Among the questions Stone raised in her written testimony: 鈥淲hat is the point of having a registry if first responders cannot be held responsible for any negative consequences that might occur in the case of a person who chose to be on the registry?鈥�
The executive director of the Autism Society of Howard County, Melissa Rosenberg, forwarded testimony in support of the Montgomery County bill. Rosenberg鈥檚 letter referenced what she said were 鈥渕any positive stories鈥� in which the partnership of the police, school system, the Autism Society and others worked “to safely bring a child or young person home. She referenced one instance聽in which a 鈥渘onspeaking child found wandering in downtown Columbia鈥� was reunited with their family within 30 minutes.
Another example cited was the case of a child found near a retaining pond who was also returned home safely.
Rosenberg explained in her letter that 鈥渁 high percentage of children with autism wander鈥� or 鈥渆lope,鈥� meaning they leave home without their families noticing. According to Rosenberg, 鈥�74% of autistic children who elope/wander and die do so by drowning.鈥�
The members of the Public Safety and the Health and Human Services Committees plan on another work session before making any recommendations to the full Council.
