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Toronto Police College
70 Birmingham Street
Toronto, ON M8V 3W6
Phone: 416-808-4623
Greetings fellow educators, advocates and parents,
By way of introduction, my name is Curtis Molyneaux. I am a Police officer and Use of Force instructor at the
Toronto Police College. I am also the parent of a child with Asperger’s Syndrome. Shortly before transferring to
my current position, I was involved in a situation where my knowledge and experience as a parent of a child with
ASD allowed for a successful resolution to the call, which could have otherwise ended tragically. Both my
immediate supervisor, at the time, and my Unit Commander at the Toronto Police College recognized that this
was a crucial knowledge gap with our officers which needed to be addressed.
Subsequently, in 2012, the Toronto Police Service delivered a training module to all of its members, to provide our
officers with some basic functional awareness for dealing with persons with an Autism Spectrum Disorder from a
Law Enforcement perspective. This training was developed in consultation with the Geneva Centre for Autism,
Kerry’s Place Autism Services, Autism Ontario and Dennis Debbaudt (a subject matter expert, parent and autism
advocate out of the United States). A good portion of the training focused on crisis situations such as elopement
(runaways) and meltdowns. During the training, mention was often made that other police agencies across Ontario
had or were currently developing some form of Registry.
The Toronto Police Service is currently in the final stages of development of our own Vulnerable Persons Registry
and we anticipate our system going live sometime this spring!
The rationale behind this Registry is for members of the community to provide crucial information regarding an
individual (child or person in their care) who may have some limitations in their ability to communicate in a crisis
which could compromise their own or officer safety. This critical, situation-specific information will be available to
TPS members through our Communications (dispatcher) as well be searchable through the in-vehicle mobile
workstations. Equipped with this information, responding officers will be better prepared to manage risks in crisis
situations.
Besides Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD), other conditions which may be found on the Registry include,
Alzheimer’s, Medic-Alert conditions and acquired brain injuries. Community members can access the Registry from
the TPS public domain web-site or through a hyper-link from the websites of one of our community partners.
However, one of the most important features required in order to make the Registry a success is community
involvement.
Ultimately, it is the parents who know their children best in terms of habits, behaviors and special interests.
Whether a child is prone to running away from home and/or caregivers or the child/teen is prone to prolonged
violent outbursts, in an emergency, the parents may lack the time or composure to accurately convey such crucial
information to responding officers. This is the benefit of the Registry, but it will not work unless parents have the
ability to be fully engaged and to be informed so that they understand and trust in the benefits of the proposed
program.
Two examples of the utility of the Registry may assist in explaining.
For a child prone to elopement (running), parents/caregivers may indicate such things as locations of interest,
either specific to home or generic (i.e. Bus stations, ponds etc.) if away from home as well as key phrases to
initiate and facilitate communication, or key phrases to avoid.
The second example would be a meltdown scenario. Ottawa Police had a situation where a teenage male was
having a meltdown and threatening his family with a knife. The family (who had placed their son on the Ottawa
Police Autism Registry) had fled the home in advance of police arrival. The Ottawa Police arrived, and knowing
what and how to talk to the male because of the information front-loaded on the Registry by the parents were
able to engage the youth in a conversation about his favorite hockey team and de-escalate the entire situation
without so much as a raised voice, let alone a drawn firearm. Other information could include such things as
triggers (verbal, visual etc.) to avoid inadvertent escalation, cues that self-calming is taking place or any information
which could be relevant and useful the involved parties, both the individual and the responding officers.
Officers at TPS are being trained throughout this year in a video simulation scenario very similar in nature to
prepare them for the functionality of the Registry.
Not every family will need the tools provided by the Vulnerable Persons Registry, but for those who may, I believe
that the more resource and advocacy agencies who are aware of the existence of the Registry here in Toronto,
the better. Hence, my letter.
While the Toronto Police Service will definitely be doing a big media release to coincide with the Registry going
live, we all know that it may only be allocated a 20 second sound byte on the evening news if something bigger is
making news during that particular week. Hopefully, by enlisting the assistance and support of the Autism
community in this manner, those families who would most benefit from a Registry may become aware of it.
Kind Regards,
Curtis Molyneaux
Toronto Police College
TC Curtis Molyneaux # 7639
Toronto Police Service
4/2/2015
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