Birmingham police offer program for vulnerable, impaired residents

BIRMINGHAM — The Birmingham Police Department recently started participating in the Vulnerable or Impaired Person, or VIP, Enrollment Program, as a way to help individuals who are vulnerable or impaired return home safely.

The idea to start VIP Enrollment through the state of Michigan began when Michael Ransom, an automated print manager in the Michigan State Police Biometrics and Identification Division, got a call from his son’s school saying his son was going home on a bus when no one was expected to be home.

His son has special needs, and it could have been a dangerous experience for him had his sister not happened to be home that day. The experience inspired Ransom to do something to help other families in Michigan with loved ones who are vulnerable or impaired.

In 2017, a law was passed to allow parents, legal guardians and people with power of attorney for a person who is vulnerable or impaired to enroll that person’s fingerprints and face for facial recognition into a database through the state of Michigan.

“We saw this program as another way for us to have a capability to deal with somebody who we may encounter that is nonverbal or unable to tell us who they are, who cares for them or where they live,” Birmingham Police Chief Scott Grewe said.

Through the program, if someone in the database ever gets lost and encounters police, the police can get ahold of someone who cares for them and help get them home to safety as quickly as possible. Officers can do so by using a live scan device or mobile fingerprint scanner.

“We like to help identify those who can’t identify themselves,” Ransom said.

VIP Enrollment not only benefits individuals with special needs and their families, but it can protect police officers as well. With information in the database, an officer can be notified if an individual may not respond to directives. This way, the officers will know to change their tone to be more calm, if necessary.

There are currently about 750 VIP’s in the program. Ransom said that, at this time, they do not have statistics on people who have been sent home to safety through the program. Since the Birmingham Police Department only recently started the program, no additional statistics are available locally.

To enroll in the program, a parent or guardian must bring their loved one to the police station to submit fingerprints. They are instructed to bring a completed program enrollment form with a photo of their loved one. Providing a photo for facial recognition is optional, but fingerprints are required to participate. The program enrollment form can be found at michigan.gov/msp/services/vip.