Union County Sheriff Shawn Dyer always welcomes community input, so when a participant in the Sheriff’s Office Citizens Academy asked him last month about creating an autism awareness campaign to benefit residents and first responders alike, he thought, “That’s a good idea.”
Based on that idea, Sheriff Dyer is proud to announce that residents can now swing by his office at 378 Beasley Street to pick up one of the new Autism Awareness Stickers for individuals and families to display on their vehicles and homes.
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The free stickers are designed to be placed in key locations to alert first responders to the presence of a person with autism, and Dyer recommends people put them on rear windows in vehicles and on front-door glass or another readily visible area of a home.
As noted on the stickers, the campaign is meant to alert first responders – be it a sheriff’s deputy at a traffic stop, or a firefighter, paramedic or EMT at a wreck or other medical emergency – that an occupant has autism, and to “please be patient.”
Alerting first responders that someone has autism is important, as autistic people can quickly become overwhelmed to the point of behaving erratically – being combative and loud, for example – which can easily be misinterpreted as substance use or an acute mental health episode.
Knowing up front that an individual may be autistic can prompt a more appropriate law enforcement response, especially in Union County, where nearly all local deputies have completed crisis intervention training, or CIT, that includes situations involving autism.
Sheriff Dyer is big on training, and his goal is to have 100% of his deputies trained in crisis intervention. And since the stickers support that training, Dyer recognized the citizen’s request as an opportunity to bring another tool to better serve the public.
“If you know that going in, you can respond differently,” Dyer said. “You’re going to have more patience; you may need to speak softly, not have so much direct contact or get in their space. You just change the way you respond, and it keeps them calmer.
“We’re trained to recognize people in crisis, but if they’re in crisis when we get there, it may be to the point where we don’t know what we’ve got and treat it the wrong way starting out.
“But if we know what we’re dealing with, we may have a deputy that is more trained on CIT or has more experience with something like this that we can call to come assist.”
The sheriff said responses involving autistic people have increased over the years. He doesn’t know why exactly but noted that the trend has gone up alongside population growth.
“It’s becoming more and more frequent,” Dyer said. “It used to be rare, but it’s not rare anymore.”
If you or a family member has autism, be sure to grab one of the Autism Awareness Stickers from the Sheriff’s Office. The stickers are rugged for all weather applications and are supported by the nonprofit Union County Sheriff’s Foundation.
Sheriff Dyer has other new programs in the works but is rolling out one thing at a time “to make sure everything is successful.” And if people in the community have any ideas to share or concerns they want to see addressed, “I’d like them to reach out.”
“We can’t do everything, but if it’s a good idea, we’ll try to run with it,” Dyer said. “Our staff is limited. The only thing that’s not limited is the help of the community; it’s almost unlimited here for me – it’s amazing.”
