Risk a life or Register with Smart 911

What's your problem? Police have to respond to problems within minutes and often have to make quick evaluations and act on how to deal with a suspect. Often it results in death. Trump passed an order to allow the mentally ill to carry weapons. That makes the job of the police even harder. Acts of domestic terrorism happen every week now. So, are you crazy or a criminal or both? How will we know?

Autism is common now and the ability of the police to determine that in a person could mean the difference between life or death. When police arrive at  a scene they often bark out commands like put your hands up, do it now, turn around, lie on the floor and if a suspect does anything else, the officer can feel in danger and then the gun comes out and is used. Once dead, the suspect doesn't have to follow commands any longer. In this age of information at our fingertips can't we have  the knowledge of sick people at our fingertips like they instantly can know a person's criminal record if any?

Autistic folk will respond by skimming, being erratic with hand movements that can be determined by a unknowing eye as being rebellious meanwhile it is a reaction to nerves. Before you know it the mentally ill  autistic person is beaten and restrained if even allowed to still be alive. They have a incurable disease that inhibits them from having normal speech and or social skills, all a requirement that police instantly demand. So how can law enforcement prevent tragic interactions with people with cognitive disabilities or mental illness that can also be fueled by booze and pot?

At least 25% of police fatal encounters involves someone with a mental illness. There aren't even any reliable numbers involving individuals with a cognitive or developmental disability like autism, bipolar or schizophrenia. Our government has reduced funding for mental healthcare so there are lots of crazy people on the streets who need treatment and can't get it. Police are the res ponders to incidents who haven't been trained in being able to recognize the warning sign of the mentally ill. Many autistic folk are non verbal and wouldn't even respond or answer a police barked out command. 

Family members don't even have a team of helpers at their fingertips to help deal with the flight of a mentally ill family member. They have to call 911 and hope and pray there is no death involved. Asking the help from law enforcement could make the situation worse. At least in Chicago the police have been undergoing crisis intervention training. Instead of saying drop it now they say can we talk and they will get better results from a sick individual with a potential weapon in his hands. Yelling and aggressiveness will only make the suspect be less calm. A conversation can be helpful in determining if the suspect is delusional, if he knows where he is, or if he is hallucinating or hearing voices in his head. 

Sometimes turning off the lights and noise can make a big difference with someone with autism. In a perfect world every police officer would have training in how to deal with the mentally ill on the streets. Training involves money and time. At lease we have now a free app called Smart 911. You could register with the police someone you know with mental illness and the police will instantly be notified that this is a very special individual. In Smart 911 a loved one can register medical conditions, photographs and  special directions for accessing homes. So now it allows the police to know the suspect better in a secure encrypted way with the information available throughout the country. 

With this information known police can say can we talk instead of stop or we'll shoot and then the frightened sick individual will just run away risking a bullet to the back. REGISTER WITH SMART 911.