Submitted story
The Urbana Police Division, in partnership with the Champaign County Sheriff’s Office, Mechanicsburg Police Department, North Lewisburg Police Department, St. Paris Police Department and the Champaign Countywide Communication Center, is proud to introduce the SPOT program (Special Population Operations Team) to the residents of Champaign County.
The SPOT program will increase communication involving those individuals who have special needs.
In building the SPOT program, members of Champaign County law enforcement agencies met with representatives of the Champaign Countywide Communication Center and Champaign County Board of Developmental Disabilities to discuss the need for a program like SPOT.
It was determined that the SPOT program could assist law enforcement officers in responding to Champaign County residences where an emergency was on-going involving individuals with special needs. The SPOT program would provide first responders important information in advance informing them that they may be interacting with an individual with special needs. Information provided to first responders may assist them in how they interact or communicate with the particular individual.
Special needs could include, but are not limited to: Alzheimer’s, autism, blindness, deafness, dementia and developmental disabilities.
Signing up for the SPOT program is easy to do. A family member of the individual with special needs should contact the law enforcement agency that serves the residence of the individual. The family member will be given a SPOT registration form. Once the form is completed, it can be returned to the law enforcement agency who distributed the form. The information provided by the individual’s family member will then be given to the Champaign Countywide Communication Center in order to be distributed any time that an emergency response is dispatched in regards to the individual with special needs.
If you have any questions about the SPOT registration form or the SPOT program, please feel free to contact your local Champaign County law enforcement agency or Urbana Police Lieutenant Josh Jacobs at [email protected] or by phone at 937-652-4350.
Info from Urbana Police Division
