Autism Foundation Donates Sensory Kits To Moore Police Department

Moore Police Department is bringing in new methods to help with how they respond to calls involving people with special needs. 

“Individuals with special needs or developmental disabilities often times are hyperreactive or responsive to different sensory,” Lt. Kyle Johnson said. 

The Autism Foundation of Oklahoma donated two sensory kits to Moore PD. Police said with these kits it will help them better communicate with someone they may come in contact with in the field. 

“There have been many times where you know something like this would've come in handy. We respond to calls where individuals are in crisis very often,” Lt. Johnson said. 

Inside the kits are tools officers can use a de-escalation technique. Many of the items inside cater to a person who have specific sensory needs like hearing, visual and touch. 

“Let's say noise is a concern for them we have the ability to provide them with headphones where we can just decrease that,” Lt. Johnson said. 

“If they're nonverbal they can use this as a method to communicate to tell us to respond to how they're feeling or what it is that they're needing,” Lt. Johnson said.

Based on the call they're responding to officers will have the option to pick up one of the kits on their way out their door. This is also an improvement to a program Moore PD within the past year called Special Needs Alert and Identification Program also known as S.A.I.D. 

“Our citizens, if they have an individual in their household with special needs they can actually sign up on that program. It gives us identifying information for the individual that resides at the residence that is special needs. It provides special needs what their triggers are so that we have that essential information before we even respond to the house,” Lt. Johnson said. 

For more information on how to sign up for the S.A.I.D. program you can CLICK HERE.