Ole Miss Bridge Program Donates Sensory Kits to Oxford Police for Autism Response

Blue gear bags packed with noise-canceling headphones, weighted stuffed animals, and communication boards are now sitting inside the Oxford Police Department, ready for officers responding to calls involving people with autism or other sensory sensitivities. The Ole Miss Bridge Program and the University of Mississippi's School of Education donated 45 of those kits to first responders across Oxford and Lafayette County, with OPD receiving 15, the Lafayette County Sheriff's Office receiving 15, and the remaining 15 divided between the Lafayette County and Oxford fire departments.

Each bag contains noise-canceling headphones, sunglasses, a communications board, fidget items, and weighted stuffed animals. A QR code inside every bag links officers to a short training video on how to use the tools during a crisis, providing a built-in reference for field situations where there is no time to pause.

OPD Captain Kevin Parker said the kits expand what his department can offer during high-stress encounters. "These wraparound resources add new ways to serve, connect and protect this community," Parker said.

The project was funded by the University of Mississippi's Division of Student Affairs and assembled by Bridge Program students, mentors, and staff. OPD acknowledged that work in a Facebook post announcing the donation, expressing appreciation for everyone involved in putting the kits together.

For Whitney Drewrey, the Bridge Program coordinator who personally delivered the kits to Parker, the donation was deeply personal. She is the grandmother of an 8-year-old with autism, the wife of a Central District Lafayette County constable, and the mother of both an OPD officer and a federal investigator. Her family's connections to both autism and local law enforcement shaped her drive to make the project happen.

"My grandson uses noise-canceling headphones, similar to the ones in the kits," Drewrey said. "There are so many connections to this and reasons why I wanted to make it happen."

The communications board in each kit addresses one of the most immediate challenges officers face in those calls: an inability to establish basic communication with someone in distress. People on the autism spectrum often experience sensory sensitivities that can make a loud, visually chaotic emergency scene overwhelming, and that overload can make an already tense encounter harder to resolve safely.

Drewrey described the potential impact in direct terms. "Sometimes those tools can make all the difference in the world," she said. "From a situation that feels like it might escalate, to someone finding a moment of calm and being able to move through what they're experiencing. That's why we do this."

The university published its account of the donation on March 12, 2026, with photos by Hunt Mercier of Ole Miss Digital Imaging Services showing Drewrey handing the kits to Parker. Whether the agencies plan to supplement the QR-linked training video with in-person instruction has not been publicly announced.