Like any parent, Rachel Williams worries about the safety of her child. But she has the added fear of what could happen if her autistic son has an encounter with law enforcement, saying, “he would not react well in a situation that was scary with the police.” Williams says that her son might not stop when told to by police, potentially putting himself in danger.
“I know as a parent of a young adult with autism, my fear of him being out in the world for the first time, somewhat on his own starting college this fall, is if he’s in a situation where he panics, I realize that could be very dangerous for him,” says Williams, who is president of the Humboldt Autism Alliance, a nonprofit group that provides resources for individuals and families with autism in Humboldt County.
Starting with Rio Dell, the Redwood Coast Regional Center (RCRC), a nonprofit that provides developmental disability resources on the North Coast, has been collaborating with Humboldt County police departments to launch the Blue Envelope Program, which is meant to bridge potential communication gaps between first responders and people like Williams’ son.
As its name suggests, participants are given a blue envelope with printed instructions on what to do if they get pulled over. Instructions inform them, for example, to hand important documents — their insurance and vehicle registration — to the law enforcement officer making contact.
The blue envelope also acts as a visual cue, letting officers know an individual they are interacting with may respond differently than expected due to a medical condition or disability, and need certain accommodations. For example, if an officer in a participating jurisdiction pulled someone over with a blue envelope sticker on their car, the symbol would alert the officer that the individuals in question may not respond in the same manner others usually do during stops.
HAA Secretary Dana Fite recalls how when her autistic son was a child, there were times when his school called the police to “deal with him,” noting that response “wasn’t helpful.”
Adding that people on the autism spectrum may struggle to communicate clearly during a crisis situation, Fite says she believes having information written down, like in the Blue Envelope program, can be a helpful tool.
“I feel like [they were] doing the best that they could do, given the knowledge they had, but oftentimes they would just have him in a corner standing over him yelling at him that he needs to calm down,” Fite says. “I think the Blue Envelope project would give an opportunity for family members or even the individual to write down: ‘If I have to interact with you, this is what would be helpful for me. If I’m stressed or anxious, I might need more time to answer.’”
Williams agrees, saying having programs like Blue Envelope aids first responders and officers in allowing them to identify and better respond to people with differences in communication.
She points to a situation in 2020 in which a 13-year-old boy with autism was shot by a Salt Lake City police officer after his mother called about a crisis situation and requested help taking him to the hospital. While the boy survived the shooting, Williams says that she has been in incidents like what led to the shooting, and it scares her that things could have ended similarly.
“It’s a big worry of mine,” she says. “That, ‘Does he get shot? What happens if the police are yelling at him to stop or do something and he doesn’t know what’s happening? What’s he going to do, and is he gonna get hurt because of it?’”
The voluntary program, which has been implemented in jurisdictions across the country, also provides stickers, buttons, lanyards and bracelets with a blue envelope symbol to alert first responders. Williams said the goal is to have make local police departments aware of the program, so even first responders outside jurisdictions registered with the program understand the symbol.
RCRC Emergency Management Coordinator Ron Lee presented on the program during a police chief meeting in Eureka back in April. Soon after, Rio Dell Police Chief Joshua Phinney partnered with RCRC and the Rio Dell Community Center to make the small, rural city the first in the county to join.
“I thought it was a great idea, and I wanted to bring some version of a program like that down to Rio Dell, so I worked with them to make it happen,” Phinney said. “The goal of it is generally the same, to improve interactions, but theirs is also a little bit more of a heads up. Let’s say I pull somebody over, I show up to somebody’s house, and I see the blue envelope. That keys me off at the moment.”
Lee says he’s been working to bring the program to not only Humboldt, but also Del Norte, Mendocino and Lake counties after hearing about Southern California cities joining the program.
Cal Poly Humboldt’s University Police Department began training its officers on Sept. 29 and the Eureka Police Department has also expressed interest.
“Supporting the safety and well-being of the campus community begins with effective communication,” UPD Interim Lieutenant Janelle Jackson said. “With the help of this program, officers will have access to clear and accurate information that helps them best support individuals with specific needs.”
Lee said the training would involve some general information taught at RCRC’s crisis intervention program. “ We do provide some guidance for first responders in the crisis intervention trainings about some common types of behaviors that folks might see demonstrated that could be potentially misinterpreted by law enforcement,” Lee said.
Laura Montagna, a public information officer with EPD, told the Journal that the department is currently planning on setting up a release event for the Blue Envelope program, but no definitive timeline has been set.
Lee added that he has yet to follow up with the other police departments, as he wants to focus on “building the successes” with the launch of the program in interested departments first. “We’re kind of going jurisdiction by jurisdiction.”
RCRC is currently providing all material costs and supplies for the North Coast program, with Lee estimating the nonprofit has enough to cover around 5,000 participants with current costs being well under $5,000.
While the program was designed to mainly focus on traffic stops, Lee says some cities have expanded the effort to include other potential interactions with law enforcement or emergency responders that might occur at a private residence.
“For example, families were putting, like a sticker on the front door, so in case that law enforcement showed up at the residence, then there would be [an] identifier for law enforcement or first responders that somebody in the home might need different accommodations for the interaction when they approach the family,” Lee says.
The June 5 program launch at the Rio Dell Community Resource Center included translators and local nonprofits like the Humboldt Autism Alliance.
“ I think the biggest thing that I saw was kind of relief with a couple of the parents,” Sarah Reback, the center’s senior coordinator, says. “Just knowing that by having Blue Envelope represented, whether it be on their backpack or on their front door, that first responders can recognize that and know that they have to kind of adjust how they’re gonna be dealing with them.”
Joining the program is simple, she says, noting individuals can just speak to one of the Rio Dell Community Resource Center’s staff members to be set up. Since the program officially launched, Reback estimates around 25 to 30 individuals have taken part in the program, though there are no formal records. Residents in Scotia can also sign up.
Mitchell Jones, a peer advocate with Reaching for Independence, a program for adults with developmental disabilities, says being in the program makes him feel safe. He adds that he believes the program would also be useful if expanded for use in other situations, like going through airport security.
“I think it’s a great idea, because it would let law enforcement understand certain mistakes because of their disabilities,” he said.
Participants can also include details about their disabilities or medical conditions to help mitigate any misinterpretations.
Phinney said these help first responders to “slow down a little bit” and consider that behaviors that may seem uncooperative may be disability-related instead.
“[You] have in your mind already that some of the behaviors you may be running into may not necessarily be drug related, [it] may be disability related,” Phinney said. “So, [you] take a little bit more time and a little bit more thoughtfulness with how you talk and how you approach. You can get that blue envelope and get that diagnosis to help you better understand what their triggers are. Maybe if this person is a participant, maybe they are set off by my full overhead emergency lights being on. Maybe I should turn ‘em down when I arrive.”
While there are similar programs in Humboldt County like Fortuna’s Special Needs Alert Program, where individuals are put into a registry with diagnoses and paperwork filled out by doctors and accessible by the police department, Rio Dell’s Blue Envelope requires no registration.
“One of the good things about this particular version of this program is there’s absolutely no registry, no logs, no anything, so it’s strictly voluntary,” Phinney said. “Nobody and nothing is tracked. So, people that feel or have some fear of any type of government tracking for a disability or anything like that — they don’t have to worry about that here.”
With Lee working to incorporate Blue Envelope across Humboldt County at the local level, State Sen. Rosilicie Ochoa Bogh has been pushing for a bill that would establish Blue Envelope programs statewide with materials available upon request through the Department of Motor Vehicles by Jan. 1, 2027.
Introduced in February, the bill is currently in the committee process, but its second hearing that was set for April 28 was canceled at the request of the author.
“SB 644 has been turned into a two-year bill,” said Ivette Burch, the communications director for Bogh, when asked for an update on the bill’s status.
If passed, California would be the largest state to implement the Blue Envelope Program, following in the footsteps of Connecticut, which introduced the program in 2020 and was the first to implement it statewide.
Anne To (she/her) is a California Local News Fellow placed with North Coast Journal, Inc. Reach her at (707) 442-1400, or anne@northcoastjournal.com. The California Local News Fellowship is a state-funded initiative to support and strengthen local news reporting. Learn more about it at fellowships.journalism.berkeley.edu/cafellows.
This article appears in ‘What Else Can We Do?’.
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