California mother pushes for positive police interactions with people with autism

SONORA, Calif. (NBC, KYMA/KECY) - In California, a mother is making sure police have the tools they need when they respond to situations involving people with autism and special needs, using an "Autism Safety Alert Form," and encouraging positive interactions with police.

Wyatt Jensen is like every active five-year-old

"Wyatt loves cars. He loves trains. He loves water. Those are things he's going to be excited about and run towards if he can," said Brittaney Sutton, Wyatt's mother.

Not only that, Wyatt's autistic.

"He's sensitive to lights..he's sensitive to certain noises," Sutton explained.

For Sutton, her son's safety is her biggest priority saying, "My son has had a couple of times that he's bolted unexpectedly...he used to not even be able to come to his name and there were a few scary incidents."

"Autism Safety Alert Form"

She found an "Autism Safety Alert Form" in a support group on social media.

"God forbid, something happens and he gets away from a family member [or] myself, and we're not able to find him...the police department has that information ahead of time, they're already have the info on deck and we're all searching and they're able to interact with him in a more positive manner," Sutton spoke.

Brittney contacted the Sonora Police Department (SPD) to see if they'd be interested. The department didn't hesitate.

"We sat down, came up with the form...we reached out to an organization called Autism 101 and they kind of went over the form with us and recommended some changes or said this works really well, and then we were vetted by Autism 101," said Thomas Brickley of the SPD.

The form can be filled out in-person or online. It includes the persons name, their disability, likes, and dislikes to help officers interact with people affected by autism or other special needs.

"It then goes to our records department who will take that form and put all of that information into our database, so that way, if law enforcement has a contact with that individual as soon as we run their name, it's going to give us an alert that they have special needs," Brickley detailed.

Catching on

Now, other law enforcement agencies are catching on.

"We've been in contact with a couple of other agencies in our local area and what they really want to do is using our form and adapt it to their policies and create policies for that and linking our systems together for that share of information freely and quickly," Brickley stated.

Sutton hopes the form can help save lives.

"If it even helped one special needs or autistic individual, then I'm happy i think we succeeded," Sutton expressed.