PRESCOTT VALLEY Close to three years ago, two friends sat at a picnic table and through conversation sowed the seeds of a specialized first responder program that is spreading quickly across the state.
While watching a Special Olympics softball team practice their swings, Kim Stamper, president of the Tri-City Partnership for Special Children and Families, solicited some advice from Laura Molinaro, a commander with the Prescott Valley Police Department (PVPD) and a long-time volunteer with the Special Olympics.
Stamper's developmentally disabled 17-year-old son was becoming increasingly violent toward his siblings, she told Molinaro.
"What would happen if my husband isn't there and I can't restrain him?" she asked. "What's going to happen if I call 9-1-1?"
With that last question, Molinaro and Stamper launched a fledgling initiative to improve communication between first responders and people with developmental and behavioral problems.
"If she had questions, there were probably other parents who have questions and law enforcement officers who have questions," Molinaro said.
At a seminar in fall 2003, Molinaro presented her and Stamper's ideas to a room full of first responders and with their help developed the First Responder Smart Card Program (FRSCP).
They divided the program into three sections. First, area first responders can volunteer to attend a four-hour training program on responding to someone with special needs. Second, education is now available to parents and caretakers about what they should expect when first responders arrive.
Third, and perhaps most important, those who register in the program can request a 4x6 card for the use of first responders that lists all relevant medical information, contact numbers, prescribed medications and related instructions.
A sticker version of the card also is available for vehicles and windows.
"We wanted to make it a package deal," Molinaro said.
About 100 households in the area are now registered in the program, Stamper said.
In Scottsdale, the only municipality in Maricopa County that so far has adopted the program, about 20 households are registered, said Natalie Summit, a police crisis intervention specialist with the Scottsdale Police Department (SPD).
Several municipalities in Mohave County, including Kingman and Lake Havasu City, are in the preliminary stages of joining the program. Molinaro said that in coming weeks she will present the program to neighboring cities as far away as Flagstaff.
Gov. Janet Napolitano also has taken an interest in the program. On Tuesday in Prescott Valley, she presented to the program a check for $10,000 earmarked for expenses incurred by vehicle-related aspects of the program.
Encouraged by their successes, Molinaro and Stamper said they envision the distinctive, trademarked program logo crossing state lines and spreading across the nation.
"It's not a cop thing and it's not a family thing," Stamper said. "It's a community thing."
