KAWARTHA LAKES-Kawartha Lakes Police Service and The City of Kawartha Lakes are exploring options for a local alert system for vulnerable kids following the tragic death of 11-year-old Draven Graham.
Draven, who was autistic and would not answer to his name, was found deceased in the Scugog River, 24-hours after he wandered away from his home on Queen Street in Lindsay on Sunday June 12th.
Following the incident, many local residents wondered why an Amber Alert wasn’t issued. Kawartha Lakes Police Service Inspector, Tom Hickey, provided the Police Services Board with an update on the police response on Thursday and said an Amber Alert is only to be used for children suspected of having been kidnapped and a strict protocol must be followed in order to activate the alert.
“The reality is that it has fairly strict conditions associated with it and that is that it’s only to be used in the event of child abduction. There’s very specific information you need to provide to get that system activated.” Hickey explained.
Hickey went on to say that in this case, an Amber Alert would not have changed the outcome but he thinks something similar could be a valuable tool for police in the future.
“Quite honestly, if our timelines are correct, and we believe they are, the activation of that system would not have resulted in a different outcome for the investigation.” Hickey stated “The movement that we are seeing right now through social media and Change.org for that type of system to be in place for people with disabilities and making the public aware of what is going on would be a benefit in the future. I think it’s totally valuable.”
A Change.org petition has been launched online calling on the province to create a Draven Alert system for vulnerable children who have gone missing. So far more than 63,000 people have signed the petition. Click here for the more:https://www.change.org/p/draven-alert?recruiter=false&utm_source=share_petition&utm_medium=facebook&utm_campaign=psf_combo_share_initial&utm_term=tap_basic_share&recruited_by_id=394eb210-eb81-11ec-b6b5-335e3b8a4018&share_bandit_exp=initial-33640106-en-US&utm_content=fht-33640106-en-ca%3A0
Mayor Andy Letham sits on the board and was anxious to get the ball rolling on options.
“It’s something worth looking into. How do we do something on a local basis that could be triggered by police? ” said Letham “Any 6,7 8 year old that wanders away, is there anything that could make the community aware as quickly as possible. All children are vulnerable. Some kind of system to let the community know. Let’s see what options are available if anything and see what we can do.”
A 2018 study found that wandering by children with autism is common, dangerous and puts tremendous stress on families. The study appears in the journal Pediatrics.
In all, the survey captured information on 1,218 children affected by Autism Spectrum Disorder and 1,076 normally developing siblings.
The study found 49 percent of parents reported that a child with Autism Spectrum Disorder had attempted to wander or run away at least once after age 4. Over half of these wandering children went missing long enough to cause worry. 65 percent of the incidents involved a close call with traffic. Nearly a quarter (24 percent) involved a close call with drowning.
Police Chief Mark Mitchell told board members about a program in the US called Project Lifesaver. Project Lifesaver is a search and rescue program operated internationally by public safety agencies, and is strategically designed for “at risk” individuals who are prone to the life-threatening behaviour of wandering. “The primary mission of Project Lifesaver is to provide timely response to save lives and reduce potential injury for adults and children with the propensity to wander due to a cognitive condition.” says the website.
“I know that there’s been a lot of correspondence with council about program similar to the Lifesaver program in the States. There are some costs, basically, individuals are outfitted with an armband, the costs aren’t a deterrent but the battery has to be updated every 60 days so it would be a considerable undertaking.” said Mitchell “To sign someone up is great but if the device isn’t working when they go missing then that doesn’t put us any further ahead.”
Mitchell also explained the challenges with the Vulnerable Persons Registry. This voluntary registry provides police with emergency contact information, detailed physical descriptions, known routines and special needs of this individual. This information will assist officers in communicating with, attending a residence of, or dealing with an emergency involving this individual. it doesn’t alert the general public.
Chief Mitchell said he would start the process of gathering options.
“I will reach out to OPP Detachment Commander Tim Tatchell and we will sit down and look at the options and see if we can come back to you with a report as a starting point to see how we go forward.”
A fundraising campaign has been set up to help the family. Click here for more information:https://www.gofundme.com/f/support-for-dravens-family?utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet&utm_medium=copy_link_all&utm_source=customer
