03-10-2006, 01:33 AM
Many parents have probably wished at some point they could put a leash on their child; some actually do. And while all young children require some level of supervision, the concerns of parents of children with autism are much more serious.
Children with autism will sometimes wander or bolt and run for no apparent reason, according to Kelly Anderson, family trainer for the Autism Waiver of Maryland.
Now, technology, combined with a new program the Frederick County Sheriff's Office is coordinating, might provide a solution to those worries.
The program, called Project Lifesaver, provides bracelets with electromagnetic transmitters for children who might wander. If the child ever disappears, officials can track him or her, using a receiver with antennas to locate the source of the signal.
From fredericknewspost.com
Project Lifesaver is a national program, usually used to monitor Alzheimer's patients, but law enforcement officials believed it could be better used in Frederick County for autism, at least initially.
"Concern about this issue really came to surface last summer," said Cpl. Tom Johann, referring to the 9-year-old autistic boy who drowned in August 2005 in a neighbor's swimming pool near Ballenger Creek.
Less than a month later, two more incidents involving children with autism happened in Brunswick. Both children were found -- one on the Md. 17 bridge over the Potomac River.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Sgt. James Tully and Master Deputy Sheriff James Bible of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office trained Frederick County sheriff's deputies, Maryland State Police officers, Brunswick and Thurmont police officers and several civilians how to operate the tracking equipment.
The Frederick Police Department might also adopt the program, and it could be expanded to include Alzheimer's patients, according to Deputy First Class Gary Dembo, Project Lifesaver coordinator.
"We are in our infancy stage of this program. We will change and adapt as we go," Cpl. Johann said.
The benefits
Deputy Dembo said Project Lifesaver will eliminate hours of extra time and money police spend on searches involving dogs and helicopters.
Counting air time, fuel, manpower and overtime pay, a nine-hour search costs about $100,000, Cpl. Johann said. He estimated it costs about $1,500 per officer, per hour.
Tracking a person with Project Lifesaver cuts that cost by more than half, Deputy Dembo said. States that have been using the program since it started in 1999 in Chesapeake, Va., have had a 100 percent success rate, he said, and have found the person in less than 30 minutes. The average search time is 22 minutes, he said.
Nationwide, Project Lifesaver has contributed to more than 1,200 missing person recoveries.
For parents whose children are flight risks, the bracelets are well worth the $300 price tag and $10 monthly cost of batteries.
Boscov
The Autism Society -- with donations from the Community Foundation of Frederick County and other charities -- is covering the entire cost of the program, including more than $5,000 for training and equipment.
"As a parent of an autistic child, this is going to be a huge relief -- to know that there's a device that can track where they are," said Shawna Capotosto, co-president of the Frederick chapter of the Autism Society of America.
Ms. Capotosto can relate to parents' worries, though her son who has autism, Kurtis Dennis, 17, is not a flight risk.
"This takes a big burden off parents É You always have to be on, be aware, guess what their next move will beÉ and you can't be there 24/7, 365 days a year, so this eliminates a lot of the pressure if, God forbid, they go missing," she said.
Some children with autism are more likely to run than others if they get spooked by a loud noise or fixated on an idea, Ms. Capotosto said.
"In general, autistic children for whatever reason seem to have very little fear. They're not worried about strangers, getting lost É etc.," she said. "If they want to go get a Big Mac, they'll just go, even if there's no Mc Donald's around for 10 miles or they don't have any money É They don't think about that."
Ms. Anderson said 262 children between the ages of 3 and 21 in the Frederick County school system have been diagnosed with autism, according to the Autism Society.
That number does not include infants and toddlers or children who have not been diagnosed yet, she said.
The sheriff's office is creating application and evaluation forms for parents who believe their child could be eligible for the program. So far, police aren't sure how many bracelets they will distribute.
Each child is different and parents or guardians know best whether their child is a "runner," Deputy Dembo said.
The equipment
The bracelets, made of gray perforated plastic, look like a hospital bracelet or chunky toy watch. The transmitter is enclosed in a waterproof, pillbox-size plastic shell, along with a 3.6-volt lithium battery.
The transmitter emits an electromagnetic frequency that sounds like a high-pitched chirp when picked up by the receiver.
Care Trak, the company that manufactures the bracelets, has been using the same technology to monitor and track endangered species for years, Deputy Dembo said.
The receiver, called the CTR-1000, is officially licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate on the 215 MHz frequency, which is used for medical monitoring only.
Tuesday, officers split into groups and tested the different antennas used to track the signal by going through a mock scenario.
One person wearing a transmitter hid in the woods or in a neighborhood and the groups started from the point where the person was last seen, as radioed by a dispatcher.
The CTR-1000 has a one-mile line-of-sight range using the handheld "Yagi" antenna. If any mountains or buildings are in the way it might not receive a signal from that distance. From the air, the receiver has a range of 10-12 miles, according to Deputy Bible.
Moisture in the air can affect a signal, and metal such as parked cars can deflect the signal and distort where it is coming from, he said.
However, using electromagnetic radio waves is still more accurate than using global positioning, or GPS, Sgt. Tully said. GPS requires a minimum of three satellites to operate, making it unreliable in wooded areas or inside buildings. Also, it uses more batteries and is dependent on cell phone service, which is not always consistent, he said.
During Tuesday's practice exercise, police put a stationary Omni antenna on the roof of their car, connected to the receiver. The Omni will pick up a signal within a quarter of a mile, but will not give information about which direction it is coming from, Deputy Dembo said. Drivers carrying an Omni cannot go more than 25 miles per hour, or they could drive right through the signal zone, he said.
Once units have picked up the signal with the Omni, officers get out and carry the receiver, attached to the Yagi, which looks like a miniature rooftop television antenna.
Then, like dowsing for water, they hold the antenna in front of them and rotate it in different directions, following the chirping sound as it gets louder.
Ms. Anderson, who became certified in Project Lifesaver on Tuesday, said she liked using the antenna to locate the "missing" person.
"We just found the signal and followed it like a bloodhound. It was good," she said.
Children with autism will sometimes wander or bolt and run for no apparent reason, according to Kelly Anderson, family trainer for the Autism Waiver of Maryland.
Now, technology, combined with a new program the Frederick County Sheriff's Office is coordinating, might provide a solution to those worries.
The program, called Project Lifesaver, provides bracelets with electromagnetic transmitters for children who might wander. If the child ever disappears, officials can track him or her, using a receiver with antennas to locate the source of the signal.
From fredericknewspost.com
Project Lifesaver is a national program, usually used to monitor Alzheimer's patients, but law enforcement officials believed it could be better used in Frederick County for autism, at least initially.
"Concern about this issue really came to surface last summer," said Cpl. Tom Johann, referring to the 9-year-old autistic boy who drowned in August 2005 in a neighbor's swimming pool near Ballenger Creek.
Less than a month later, two more incidents involving children with autism happened in Brunswick. Both children were found -- one on the Md. 17 bridge over the Potomac River.
Tuesday and Wednesday, Sgt. James Tully and Master Deputy Sheriff James Bible of the Fairfax County Sheriff's Office trained Frederick County sheriff's deputies, Maryland State Police officers, Brunswick and Thurmont police officers and several civilians how to operate the tracking equipment.
The Frederick Police Department might also adopt the program, and it could be expanded to include Alzheimer's patients, according to Deputy First Class Gary Dembo, Project Lifesaver coordinator.
"We are in our infancy stage of this program. We will change and adapt as we go," Cpl. Johann said.
The benefits
Deputy Dembo said Project Lifesaver will eliminate hours of extra time and money police spend on searches involving dogs and helicopters.
Counting air time, fuel, manpower and overtime pay, a nine-hour search costs about $100,000, Cpl. Johann said. He estimated it costs about $1,500 per officer, per hour.
Tracking a person with Project Lifesaver cuts that cost by more than half, Deputy Dembo said. States that have been using the program since it started in 1999 in Chesapeake, Va., have had a 100 percent success rate, he said, and have found the person in less than 30 minutes. The average search time is 22 minutes, he said.
Nationwide, Project Lifesaver has contributed to more than 1,200 missing person recoveries.
For parents whose children are flight risks, the bracelets are well worth the $300 price tag and $10 monthly cost of batteries.
Boscov
The Autism Society -- with donations from the Community Foundation of Frederick County and other charities -- is covering the entire cost of the program, including more than $5,000 for training and equipment.
"As a parent of an autistic child, this is going to be a huge relief -- to know that there's a device that can track where they are," said Shawna Capotosto, co-president of the Frederick chapter of the Autism Society of America.
Ms. Capotosto can relate to parents' worries, though her son who has autism, Kurtis Dennis, 17, is not a flight risk.
"This takes a big burden off parents É You always have to be on, be aware, guess what their next move will beÉ and you can't be there 24/7, 365 days a year, so this eliminates a lot of the pressure if, God forbid, they go missing," she said.
Some children with autism are more likely to run than others if they get spooked by a loud noise or fixated on an idea, Ms. Capotosto said.
"In general, autistic children for whatever reason seem to have very little fear. They're not worried about strangers, getting lost É etc.," she said. "If they want to go get a Big Mac, they'll just go, even if there's no Mc Donald's around for 10 miles or they don't have any money É They don't think about that."
Ms. Anderson said 262 children between the ages of 3 and 21 in the Frederick County school system have been diagnosed with autism, according to the Autism Society.
That number does not include infants and toddlers or children who have not been diagnosed yet, she said.
The sheriff's office is creating application and evaluation forms for parents who believe their child could be eligible for the program. So far, police aren't sure how many bracelets they will distribute.
Each child is different and parents or guardians know best whether their child is a "runner," Deputy Dembo said.
The equipment
The bracelets, made of gray perforated plastic, look like a hospital bracelet or chunky toy watch. The transmitter is enclosed in a waterproof, pillbox-size plastic shell, along with a 3.6-volt lithium battery.
The transmitter emits an electromagnetic frequency that sounds like a high-pitched chirp when picked up by the receiver.
Care Trak, the company that manufactures the bracelets, has been using the same technology to monitor and track endangered species for years, Deputy Dembo said.
The receiver, called the CTR-1000, is officially licensed by the Federal Communications Commission to operate on the 215 MHz frequency, which is used for medical monitoring only.
Tuesday, officers split into groups and tested the different antennas used to track the signal by going through a mock scenario.
One person wearing a transmitter hid in the woods or in a neighborhood and the groups started from the point where the person was last seen, as radioed by a dispatcher.
The CTR-1000 has a one-mile line-of-sight range using the handheld "Yagi" antenna. If any mountains or buildings are in the way it might not receive a signal from that distance. From the air, the receiver has a range of 10-12 miles, according to Deputy Bible.
Moisture in the air can affect a signal, and metal such as parked cars can deflect the signal and distort where it is coming from, he said.
However, using electromagnetic radio waves is still more accurate than using global positioning, or GPS, Sgt. Tully said. GPS requires a minimum of three satellites to operate, making it unreliable in wooded areas or inside buildings. Also, it uses more batteries and is dependent on cell phone service, which is not always consistent, he said.
During Tuesday's practice exercise, police put a stationary Omni antenna on the roof of their car, connected to the receiver. The Omni will pick up a signal within a quarter of a mile, but will not give information about which direction it is coming from, Deputy Dembo said. Drivers carrying an Omni cannot go more than 25 miles per hour, or they could drive right through the signal zone, he said.
Once units have picked up the signal with the Omni, officers get out and carry the receiver, attached to the Yagi, which looks like a miniature rooftop television antenna.
Then, like dowsing for water, they hold the antenna in front of them and rotate it in different directions, following the chirping sound as it gets louder.
Ms. Anderson, who became certified in Project Lifesaver on Tuesday, said she liked using the antenna to locate the "missing" person.
"We just found the signal and followed it like a bloodhound. It was good," she said.