Law enforcement officers are often responsible for the search and rescue of persons who go missing, and they face various challenges when the missing individuals have forms of dementia such as Alzheimer’s, and intellectual developmental disabilities (IDD), such as autism.

More than six million Americans currently live with Alzheimer’s disease and six in ten with dementia will wander from safe environments at some point, some repeatedly.¹ Likewise, 60 percent of children who have autism are likely to wander, and 24 percent of autistic children who wander from safe environments are at risk of drowning, while another 65 percent are at risk for injury in traffic.² Wandering can have significant effects on the families, caregivers, friends, and loved ones of the person who goes missing.

Kevin and Avonte’s Law was named in honor of two young boys with autism who wandered from safety and tragically lost their lives.³ To avoid these tragedies, the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA) provides funding to law enforcement agencies, nonprofit organizations, and municipal agencies to implement technologies to track missing individuals and to develop or operate programs to prevent wandering, increase safety, and facilitate rescue. These efforts also promote the education and training of caregivers to prevent wandering and provide law enforcement officers the tools they need to help recover missing loved ones.

The IACP is dedicated to helping police respond to calls that involve persons who, due to their condition, may wander from safe environments, through a project called Home Safe. The IACP currently serves as the training and technical assistance (TTA) provider to 26 grantees of BJA’s The Kevin and Avonte Program: Reducing Injury and Death of Missing Individuals with Dementia and Developmental Disabilities. These sites provide locative technology and proactive programming to individuals who wander due to their condition, as well as to their families and the community. The IACP provides TTA to these sites, including a library of resources to provide support to the field in instances involving missing individuals with IDD. The IACP has also created a secure, online community of practice that allows the grant site teams to network, share information, and learn from each other.

The important work being done by these sites and others across the United States has highlighted the need for federal standards and best practices around the use of locative technology. With that goal in mind, the Home Safe project brought together the Kevin and Avonte program sites for a two-day convention. Held in July 2021, this virtual roundtable was designed to gather information from the combined experiences and expertise of the grant sites in implementing proactive programming and locative technology to inform future conversations on standards and best practices. Moderators guided discussions on various topics, including the processes for selecting locative technology and what technology should be used. Multiple factors were considered during the roundtable, including implications to privacy, liability, and the potential for invasiveness. The grant sites also discussed the importance of education and partnerships when working with vulnerable populations. The meeting ended with several key takeaways:

• Development of national standards should include the perspectives of everyone affected by the standards, including families, law enforcement, special education teachers, experts, manufacturers, and people with lived experience.
• National standards need to be flexible and adaptable to different departments and jurisdictions.
• Locative tracking technology should be used as a last resort. All other prevention methods should be utilized first.
• Training for officers, first responders, and 911 dispatchers, focused on identifying key characteristics and behaviors associated with intellectual and/or developmental disabilities and dementia, is essential to direct clients to the appropriate services they require.

This and all information gathered from the roundtable will be used to frame future conversations on shaping U.S. federal standards and best practices regarding the use of locative technology.

Notes:

¹ Alzheimer’s Association, “2021 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures,” infographic (2021). Alzheimer’s Association; Alzheimer’s Association, “Wandering.”

² Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), “Key Findings: Children with Autism Spectrum Disorder More Likely to Wander than Children in Other Study Groups,” January 27, 2020; Carla Kemp, “Wandering a Major Problem among Children with Autism: What You Can Do,” American Academy of Pediatrics, news release, September 18, 2020.

³Senate Committee on the Judiciary, “Kevin and Avonte’s Law,” S. 2070 (115th Cong.)