A New
911
Initiative
by Hugh
Brady
A few
years
ago, Pat
Rodbro,
who is
currently
one of
the
co-presidents
of NAMI
Cook
County
North
Suburban,
began
discussions
with her
local
police
department
in
Lincolnshire
about an
idea she
had
regarding
the
village’s
911 call
system.
Wouldn’t
it be
beneficial,
she
thought,
if, when
the
police
responded
to a 911
call
from a
residence
where a
person
with
severe
mental
illness
lived,
they
would
already
know
some
basic
information
about
the
individual
so as to
be able
to
respond
appropriately?
So she
talked
about
the idea
with
police
officials,
and over
several
years
they
worked
out a
system.
Village
residents
could
file a
voluntary
advance
notice
with the
police
about
any
person
with a
disability
at that
address.
It could
be any
disability
– a
person
with a
developmental
disability
such as
Down’s
syndrome,
a person
with
Alzheimer’s,
a
physical
handicap
or a
mental
illness
– or any
other
condition.
And it
wouldn’t
be just
the
police
who
would
get this
information;
it would
also be
the fire
department
and
EMT’s.
Then,
whenever
there
was a
911 call
from
that
address,
the
information
about
the
person
with the
disability
would
pop up
on the
911
dispatcher’s
computer
screen
and be
relayed
to the
first
responders
already
headed
for that
address.
When
they
arrived
they
would
know
what to
look
for,
whether
it was a
person
with a
physical
disability
who
needed
help
escaping
from a
fire, or
a person
with a
mental
illness
who
needed
help
getting
through
a
crisis.
Well,
Lincolnshire
adopted
the
idea.
Information
about
the
program
was
mailed
to every
village
resident,
and as
the
voluntary
advance
notice
forms
began to
come in,
the
information
was
entered
into the
village’s
911
computer
system.
It was a
good
idea,
and it
began to
spread:
This
summer
the
Illinois
General
Assembly
adopted
it as a
statewide
program
when
they
passed
Public
Act
96-0788,
the
Illinois
Premise
Alert
Program
Act.
So if
you have
a
chance,
or are
interested,
please
contact
your
local
police
department
and see
what
they are
doing to
implement
the new
law. And
if they
are
uncertain
how to
proceed,
the
model
already
in place
in
Lincolnshire
might be
a good
model
for them
to
adopt.
Call the
village
and ask
about
their
Special
Concerns
Response
Program
or learn
more
about it
online
at:
http://www.village.lincolnshire.il.us/pdf/police/police_scrp.pdf
No
sense
for
every
police
and fire
department
in the
state to
reinvent
the
wheel!
