With April as Autism Awareness Month, there’s no better time for District Attorney Stephen A. Zappala, Jr. and the Allegheny County District Attorney’s Office to celebrate the 400th participant enrolled in the Project Lifesaver program.
DA Zappala commemorated the milestone by bringing the participating Project Lifesaver law enforcement agencies in Allegheny County and community partners together at Ross Township Police Department to thank them for years of hard work and discuss the life-saving equipment’s future possibilities.
Project Lifesaver was brought to Allegheny County in 2014 through a collaborative effort between DA Zappala, the Allegheny County Chiefs of Police, and Munhall Police Department, along with input from Autism Pittsburgh.
“We started this program to respond to a national problem at the time,” said DA Zappala. “We saw a number of tragic events rooted in that responding officers didn’t know how to encounter somebody with cognitive limitations. We embraced the tragedy of others and learned from that.”
Autism Pittsburgh President Jesse Torisky echoed the importance of officer training, having himself taught many police departments about autism traits and proper communication methods.
“People on the spectrum are seven times more likely to encounter police,” said Torisky. “That doesn’t mean they’re more likely to commit crimes, but it’s because of their problems in communications, sometimes it can lead to misunderstanding.”
Torisky emphasized to officers the increased likelihood of coming across individuals with autism.
“When my brother was diagnosed, 1 in 15,000 people had autism,” said Torisky. “Today, the CDC says it’s 1 in 36. So the chances of [officers] or the community encountering somebody on the spectrum are pretty high.”
Although the majority of Project Lifesaver participants have autism, it can also be a great resource for older adults with conditions like Alzheimer’s or dementia and their caretakers.
“We’re a large community and invariably there’s not a family that isn’t touched by some of these issues,” said DA Zappala. “The trauma that goes with someone you love, someone you care about and you can’t find them, it’s a very scary circumstance.”
Dana Cogley of Elizabeth has been a Project Lifesaver parent since the beginning and relates to the worry associated with a missing loved one.
“The fact is no matter how hard you try to prevent it or how many safety strategies you have in place, elopement can still happen,” said Cogley.
Cogley’s son Keegan was diagnosed with autism at a young age and was among the first to receive a tracking bracelet in Allegheny County. Cogley enrolled Keegan in Project Lifesaver as a precaution after he had run off from school several times.
“I can have peace of mind that there’s a way to locate his precise location in a timely manner,” said Cogley. “Knowing that there is a great program to help find your loved one effectively is very comforting.”
Those enrolled in the program wear a small, watch-sized transmitter that produces a unique tracking frequency, allowing equipped officers to pinpoint an individual’s exact location.
“The most important thing from my perspective is the response,” said DA Zappala. “With the 20 departments and over 50 trained officers in the program, we can coordinate a response anywhere throughout the county.”
Since its implementation in Allegheny County, Project Lifesaver has been activated 98 times, with a 100% success rate in bringing participants home.
“Every time that we’ve had to respond to somebody being lost or at risk, each time we’ve had a successful recovery,” DA Zappala said, congratulating officers.
After extensive research, Cogley found that Project Lifesaver is the most effective system of its kind, and she is happy to have it in her and her son’s life.
“You’re able to get out more and help your loved one experience life,” said Cogley. “Whether at home, school, church or in the community, you don’t have to be in constant fear of elopement.”
In the future, DA Zappala hopes to expand the program to incorporate drones to aid in expediting searches.
“Time is not always on our side,” said DA Zappala. “If we add the infrared or the heat-seeking aspect to drones, we can cover a lot more ground in a lot shorter period of time.”
Project Lifesaver is free to Allegheny County residents.
More information and how to enroll can be found on our Project Lifesaver page.