The Juneau Police Department is beginning a program to enhance the safety of residents who have conditions that may bring them into contact with the police, said a JPD spokesperson.<\/p>\n
The At-Risk Community Program will allow caregivers to fill out a form with JPD with basic information which may help the police to assist someone needing help, wrote Lt. Krag Campbell in the news release.<\/p>\n
“It’s outward reaching to the community to help the community in those types of situations and to better serve,” said Chief Ed Mercer in an interview. “I think it’s a good thing for the community. I hope it helps people for their peace of mind, that if they call us for our services, we’ll be more responsive.”<\/p>\n
[White House sets low expectations for China talks in Alaska]<\/ins><\/a><\/p>\n At-risk people may be someone with a mental condition that makes it difficult to communicate, or a disease that impairs memory, or anything in between, Campbell said. The form will have basic information about the at-risk person, including places they might go, behaviors that could have positive or negative effects and a photograph.<\/p>\n In a crisis, Mercer said, having that information could save lives, whether by letting the police know who to contact or if someone is missing, where to start looking.<\/p>\n “During these interactions, our ability to communicate effectively is of the utmost importance,” Campbell said. “If someone is non-verbal, unable to tell us where they live, or unable to indicate their emergency contacts’ information, this can hamper our ability to care for them effectively.”<\/p>\n The program is entirely voluntary, Campbell said. Caregivers can withdraw from the program at any time, and none of the information will be shared outside JPD; it’s purely for the safety of the at-risk individuals, Campbell said.<\/p>\n Sgt. Brian Dallas was the source of the idea, Mercer said. He didn’t know of other departments using a similar program, Mercer said, but he wouldn’t be surprised if there were.<\/p>\n Several applications had already been received Wednesday morning since the program had been announced the afternoon before, Mercer said.<\/p>\n Those wishing to register for the ARC program should go to https:\/\/juneau.org\/police\/arc<\/a> and fill out the form, Campbell said. To submit the form, email it at arcprogram@juneaupolice.com<\/a> or drop it off at the police station during working hours.<\/p>\n • Contact reporter Michael S. Lockett at (757) 621-1197 or mlockett@juneauempire.com.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The database will allow police to better help Juneau residents in distress. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":534,"featured_media":68807,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_stopmodifiedupdate":false,"_modified_date":"","wds_primary_category":9,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,4],"tags":[765,75],"yst_prominent_words":[],"class_list":["post-68806","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-home","category-news","tag-city-and-borough-of-juneau","tag-local-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68806","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/534"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=68806"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/68806\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/68807"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=68806"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=68806"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=68806"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.juneauempire.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=68806"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}