Peru Police Department to honor National Autism Acceptance Month with blue badges

Peru police officers will be swapping out their shields and opting for blue in April for National Autism Acceptance Month.

Police departments across the Illinois Valley partnered with LINKED- Autism Safety Project earlier this year to establish a voluntary registration program for the Illinois Valley’s official autism alert system.

The program doesn’t only include children with autism – it could be anyone with an intellectual disability.

It allows police to create a pre-arrival plan to best assist those within the community. All registration is secure and confidential, and it is used only for first responders.

LINKED is part of a nonprofit organization created by Ashley McClain, a mother of a child with autism, to build a relationship between emergency responders and the members of the autism and special needs community, the departments said in a joint news release in July. The project was created as a collaborative effort with a network of public safety professionals, autism professionals and parents of children with autism.

“They have the autism symbol in the middle to show that the police department partners with the autism community,” Peru Police Chief Sarah Raymond said. “We want to bring awareness to autism, hopefully educate people a little bit and raise money for it.”

Peru already has begun selling autism awareness T-shirts for $25 to help raise funds for other entities, including LINKED, that assist people with autism. They are available in sizes youth small to extra large and adult small to 3XL until March 21 from community service officer Blake Frund.

“We feel like giving back to [LINKED] is important,” Raymond said. “So, hopefully we will be able to raise enough money to donate back to them as well as the autism school here in Peru, or have that money for any other programs that may need it.”

LINKED provided first responders with a sensory pack in every emergency vehicle that contains a variety of sensory products recommended by professionals in the field.

Along with the sensory packs, LINKED also provided an Emergency Picture Exchange Communication System, which is a picture communication tool for nonspeaking residents developed by professionals to assist in the dialogue between a child and emergency responders.

Caregivers of the autism and special needs community can access the registration form from the police departments’ website, social media page or by stopping into the respective police departments to fill out a hardcopy of the registration form in La Salle, Peru, Mendota, Oglesby and Spring Valley.

Anyone who is interested in donating to the program can make a check out to LINKED- Autism Safety Project or the Peru Police Department, 2650 N. Peoria St., Peru, IL 61354. Donations can be dropped off at the police department.

Anyone interested in buying a T-shirt through March 21 can contact Frund at cso@perupolice.org.