Police Reunite Autistic Boy with Parents

A year ago, police started utilizing the Premise Alert System, a free safety service that allows residents to alert police, firefighters and ambulance workers about loved ones with special needs who live in the township.

On March 27, police say, the system helped them to quickly reunite a 6-year-old autistic boy with his parents.

South Whitehall police said they were dispatched to Springhouse Road, in the area of the , for a “small child walking around unattended.”

When Corporal David Gross and Officer Thomas Webb arrived, they found the boy walking in traffic on Springhouse Road. Gross tried to ask the child several times for his name, but the boy was not verbal. He could not identify himself.

The officers got the boy to come with them into their police vehicle, in hopes of gathering information, but were not able to get any information from him. So they brought the child back to police headquarters to work on getting him safely back to his family.

At headquarters, Webb recognized the boy from the Premise Alert System that the South Whitehall police began utilizing in early 2011. He was able to make a match with a photo that the boy's family had previously provided to police.

Webb said he called the boy's mother as she was calling 9-1-1 to report the child missing; the boy's father was already out looking for him. Unbeknownest to his parents, Webb said, the boy had apparently been in his backyard when he stacked some things up so that he could climb over the fence in his yard.

"We have your son, safe and sound," Webb told her.

"She was relieved," he said. 

According to its website, the Premise Alert System was created by an East Earl Township police chief and another in 2004 and first implemented in Chester County. Its founders "gifted the system" to Pennsylvania in 2008, with the program being replicated in Illinois and Wisconsin. Police departments throughout Pennsylvania utilize it.

Supporters say the system allows first responders to react quickly -- and in an educated manner -- in crises. It is designed to help those with special needs, including those with Alzheimer's, autism and other challenges. 

In South Whitehall, parents or caregivers of those with special needs can fill out a Premise Alert request form and provide information and a photo to township police. The form can be obtained online. 

Completed forms should be returned to:

South Whitehall Township Police

4444 Walbert Ave.

Allentown, PA 18104.