Sutter County sheriff introduces program to support people with disabilities during law enforcement encounters
The Sutter County Sheriff's Office is rolling out a new tool aimed at making encounters with law enforcement safer and less stressful for people with disabilities. It's called the Blue Envelope Program.
"It sets a good tone. It opens those communication lines in a safe fashion," said Deputy Sheriff Andre Licon with the Sutter County Sheriff's Office.
Earlier this year, the Placer County Sheriff's Office was the first in the Sacramento region to launch a Blue Envelope Program.
"It basically helps notify law enforcement of some sort of special need that the individual has, whether that's autism, could be dementia, could be PTSD, trauma, anything. Lights and sirens sometimes trigger people," said Sutter County Sheriff's Office's Public Information Officer Sierra Pedley.
The idea is to hand over a blue envelope or have the decals visible to law enforcement during a traffic stop or any other encounter.
"It's not always going to be an enforcement issue. It might be someone we encounter in the park or maybe they have an issue that isn't criminal related, but there's going to be a communication factor there that we're working through," Licon said.
It's an initiative that's important to Sutter County Sheriff Brandon Barnes.
"My grandson Liam has autism, so to me this is very personal thing that we're able to do to provide another level of service to our community," Barnes said.
"We decided to launch it this week after a soft launch and items have been going quite quickly," Pedley said.
So quickly, in fact, the sheriff's office has already had to restock the blue envelope station a couple of times.
"You can come into the front of the sheriff's office, you'll walk in to the left-hand side. We have a basket here that has blue envelope products. Seatbelt covers, wristbands, buttons," Licon said.
The program station is monitored daily and refilled as needed. The sheriff's office wants to emphasize these are not get out of jail free cards.
"The blue envelope doesn't absolve anyone of their responsibilities from a criminal standpoint or behavioral standpoint. It just lets us know there may be a communication challenge or a workaround that we may need to be aware of when communicating with folks," Licon said.
The sheriff's office is educating its deputies to be aware of and on the lookout for blue envelopes while out in the community.
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