Returning At-Risk Citizens Home Safely
This week marks the 1,804th national search and rescue of a Project Lifesaver client maintaining a 100% recovery rate and zero fatalities.
On December 2, 2008, the Brockton Police Department (Massachusetts) responded to a report of a 77 year-old female with dementia missing. The challenge in this particular case was the missing citizen left the house with her two-year old grandson and was believed to not be properly dressed for the weather conditions. Both were located by a responding officer on the corner of Belmont and Manomet Streets two miles from where they went missing. Due to the temperature in the low 40’s, both were checked by emergency medical services prior to being transported back home.
On December 8, 2008, the Ocean County Sheriff’s Department (Toms River, NJ) responded to a report of a 77 year-old male with Alzheimer’s missing in 27° weather. A responding deputy picked up the clients signal while heading to the location the citizen was last seen. He was found uninjured walking in a roadway approximately two miles from home.
On December 9, 2008, the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office (Rutherfordton,NC) responded to a report of a 72 year-old client missing from their residence. The client was located within a minute of units arriving in the back yard of their residence.
On December 10, 2008, the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office (Virginia) responded to a report of a missing 91 year-old man with Alzheimer’s. The client’s wife reported that he had apparently walked out of their home. Responding sheriff units located him within 15 minutes of the initial call a half mile from his home. He was returned safely to his family. The Norfolk Sheriff’s Office has 69 citizens currently enrolled in the Project Lifesaver Program.
On November 22, 2008, Virginia 43rd Search and Rescue received a report of a 77 year-old female with Alzheimer’s missing for an unknown amount of time from her residence. Due to the temperature in the 30’s, and an unknown amount of time the citizen was missing, assistance was requested to other agencies in the area with a response from the Norfolk Sheriff’s Office, Newport News Sheriff’s Office and helicopter support from Virginia Beach Police Department. Responding units searched the immediate and surrounding area for 55 minutes before the signal could be located. The client was found in under an hour by locating her transmitter signal; she had traveled approximately 3.5 miles away from home and was located prior to mutual aid arrival in the area. She was found not to be adequately dressed for the weather, but was in good condition and returned to her home.
You may ask why this is important; the answer in itself is simple. One life saved, is one less tragedy a family must endure and one less sad story featured on the news leaving citizens wondering what could be done to help prevent such events.
People who are enrolled in the Project Lifesaver Program wear a personalized wristband that emits a tracking signal. When caregivers notify the local Project Lifesaver agency that the person is missing, a search and rescue team responds to the wanderer’s area and starts searching with a mobile locater tracking system. Search times have been reduced from hours and days to just minutes, the average rescue time if notified is less than 30-minutes.
Currently, there are over 800 agencies in 45 states, District of Columbia and Canada participating in the Project Lifesaver Program Bringing Loved Ones Home®. Since Project Lifesaver International is a non-profit (501 (c) (3)) organization, funding is a result of private and corporate donations and grants. Donations are used directly for programs, rescues and educational expenses.
Before Project Lifesaver, searches across the country were averaging 9 hours and costing taxpayers approximately $1,500 per hour. Many searches actually took days, with hundreds of responders, resulting in much higher costs and many with tragic endings. One search in Chesapeake in 1979 cost the city $342,000 and was unsuccessful. The basic cost to start this program in an agency is less than $5,000, finding someone alive is priceless.
Project Lifesaver is proud to be in a partnership with LoJack, a leading global provider of recovery systems for stolen mobile assets.
Locator Systems Corp., equipment suppliers to Project Lifesaver International, is now a subsidiary of LoJack Corporation (www.lojack.com). They are proud to be the official supplier of high-quality technology tracking equipment to Project Lifesaver International.
In the meantime, go to the following link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v8eZf9nzJ28 and you will be able to view our most recent video about Project Lifesaver. Our web site also has more information on the cost and benefits www.projectlifesaver.org
Thank-you for allowing us to share information on a program that has been proven to save lives and lessen the time resources is needed for conducting searches.
