Estimates show that 37 percent of children with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD), such as autism spectrum disorder (autism), have wandered in the past year. Sixty percent of individuals with dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, will wander at some point in their lives.

Wandering is a common behavior where individuals with IDDs or dementia will leave a safe location and potentially end up in a dangerous situation. When that happens, police are often responsible for the search and rescue efforts.

The International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP), led by Autism Society of America, in partnership with The Arc’s National Center on Criminal Justice and Disability, participates in the Home Safe project, a national training and technical effort to prevent water- and wandering-related deaths through proactive programming, public awareness, and public policy. Home Safe, which is funded by the Bureau of Justice Assistance, has provided training and technical assistance to over 70 agencies since 2019, along with countless other police and service provider agencies across the United States. The Home Safe project also features a series of resources to support police efforts to safely reduce injury to and death of individuals with IDDs or dementia who wander.

Resources on Interacting with and Responding to Individuals with IDDs

Education on wandering is paramount to help police and first responders identify behavioral characteristics and warning signs. Home Safe developed Understanding Children on the Autism Spectrum: A Guide for First Responders to inform police on the characteristics and behaviors of children with autism, strategies for building awareness through community partnerships, and tips on using technological solutions to locate children who have gone missing. The Home Safe webinar, What Law Enforcement Need to Know About Developmental Disabilities: Tips from an Officer and His Son, shares strategies for officers to successfully interact with individuals with IDDs. To supplement personnel’s search and rescue training, Children on the Autism Spectrum: Search Protocols & Questionnaire for First Responders provides police with key information and guidance on searching for children with autism who have gone missing. This resource also includes a fillable form to guide responding officers in information gathering from caregivers on the scene.

Finding and safely recovering a missing person who has autism or another IDD can present unique challenges for police and caregivers. For police, a wandering incident starts at the point of notification; however, it is important to remember, for families and caregivers, a wandering incident may have started much earlier. Tips for Caregivers Supporting Children on the Autism Spectrum is a customizable resource for police to share with their communities. This resource offers guidance to caregivers on how to prepare for and respond to wandering incidents. The Autism Society’s Safety on the Spectrum: Water and Wandering Program offers additional training and free resources addressing water safety for first responders, caregivers, and individuals with autism. These resources include

• Kevin and Avonte’s Safety Resources—a compilation of one-page resources that highlight what to know about wandering, drowning, locative technology, and voluntary database systems; and
• Safety Toolkit Resources—a collection of letter templates to educators and other community members about an individual’s wandering behavior, an emergency identification sheet, a wandering history log, a wandering prevention checklist, a wandering emergency plan, a caregiver’s guide on interacting with police, pictographs depicting officers for individuals with autism, and more.

When caregivers call 911, telecommunicators can use a predetermined set of questions to support the gathering of essential information, including the person’s diagnosis, when the individual was last seen, locative technology data, information on direction and means of travel, and any other relevant details. Gathering this information at the point of notification enables telecommunicators to relay this information to first responders. Home Safe’s Children on the Autism Spectrum: 911 Telecommunicator & Dispatcher Checklist provides a list of essential questions telecommunicators should ask callers who are reporting a child missing. These questions can be further adapted for reports of a missing adult with an IDD or dementia.

Resources on Locative Technology

Locative technology is another tool police and caregivers can use to prevent and respond to wandering incidents. Locative technology can help find the location of an item or a person through an electronic device. Device selection should be carefully considered by police departments, families, caregivers, and the individuals wearing the technology, when developmentally appropriate. Considering Locative Technology in the Disability Community: Balancing Autonomy and Safety can help guide decision-making processes for families. Home Safe’s webinar Exploring Locative Technology: What You Need to Know to Address Wandering highlights strategies to address wandering by individuals with IDD, as well as the use of locative technology, through a panel of police, family members, and disability advocates.

Resources on Interacting with and Responding to Individuals with Dementia

Individuals with dementia who wander are likely to encounter police through different means than individuals with IDD. By 2050, 88 million U.S. residents will be 65 or older, and approximately 80 percent of this population will likely be driving. As a result, police may encounter drivers who, while initially coherent, are subsequently recognized as confused or disoriented. The Senior Drivers: Did You Know? postcard is a useful way to remind officers of some of the signs of unsafe driving and can inform them of steps that can be taken when interacting with a senior driver who is exhibiting unsafe driving. The Safeguarding the Maturing Population: Did You Know? postcard provides quick reference points on the Dos and Don’ts of effectively interacting with an individual with dementia.

The 10 Warning Signs a Driver May Have Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia pocket card outlines 10 basic warning signs that a driver may have dementia and 10 steps to ensure positive interactions.

The Identifying and Evaluating the At-Risk Older Adult evaluation card and the Identifying and Helping a Driver with Alzheimer’s Disease or Dementia brochure contain assessment questions to help police identify and evaluate an at-risk adult’s orientation and memory and include information about what to do when interacting with them.

Each of these IACP resources are designed to be small enough to be kept in patrol cars and used in the field.

Additionally, the Home Safe project created a comprehensive overview of promising practices related to implementing communication, technology, and education strategies for wandering prevention, response to wandering, and recovery of individuals with IDDs or dementia. Promising Practices to Address Wandering of Individuals with Developmental Disabilities or Dementia presents police, service providers, and caregivers with a compilation of information gathered from subject matter experts across the United States.

This project is supported by Grant No. 15JOVW-22-GK-04037-MUMU awarded by the Office on Violence Against Women, U.S. Department of Justice. The opinions, findings, conclusions, and recommendations expressed herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the U.S. Department of Justice.