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Bracelets to help locate missing persons

Sheriff: Donations needed to lower cost for those who can’t afford it

By JOHN MUNFORD
jmunford@thecitizennews.com

A new program offered by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Department will make it much easier to find persons likely to wander off, including patients with Alzheimer’s disease, Down Syndrome or autism.

Such persons can be outfitted with a non-removable bracelet that constantly emits a radio frequency. If a loved one goes missing, a family member can notify the sheriff’s department, which will dispatch its helicopter, Hawk 1, to conduct a search.

Nationwide, lost victims have been found within 22 minutes with a 100 percent success rate, according to Project Lifesaver International. Bill Riley, the department’s chief pilot, noted that the signal has been recorded from locator bracelets as far as 17 miles away when monitoring by air in a helicopter.

The only catch is the frequency bracelet costs $250 and a monthly maintenance fee, to replace the battery, runs $25.

Realizing not everyone who needs to participate will be able to afford the cost, the sheriff’s department wants to mobilize financial support from local churches and civic groups, said Fayette County Sheriff Randall Johnson.

“We’re asking our churches to get involved, our Kiwanis Clubs and our Rotary Clubs,” Johnson said. “Somebody who has a low income, if he gets just one check, might not be able to afford this.”

Donations would be used to assist persons who can prove they can’t afford to pay for the monitoring bracelet and monthly fee, Johnson said.

The service is needed in Fayette County, Johnson said.

“We’ve had instances where people have gone missing and we’ve been fortunate to find them within hours in the past,” Johnson said.

Johnson said deputies were called Thursday to locate a young autistic boy who had wandered off from his east Fayette home. Although he was found relatively quickly, the sheriff noted, the Project LIfesaver system will be a far more reliable system.

“We just want to do everything that we can to help out,” Johnson said.

The sheriff noted that 1 in 10 families have been affected by someone who has Alzheimer’s disease.

The equipment can also be run by a car on the ground in case of inclement weather which might prevent the helicopter from taking flight, officials noted.

The equipment used in the helicopter to locate bracelet wearers was paid for with money seized from drug dealers by deputies. The department has spent $7,500 on equipment and training for 15 people.

Since the sheriff’s department is the first agency in Georgia to join Project Lifesaver, they will train all future departments who sign up.

Lt. Col. Bruce Jordan, the department’s director of investigations, said he hopes other metro Atlanta agencies will sign up for the program.

For more information about the program, call the sheriff’s department at 770-461-6353 or by e-mail at FCSDhawk1@yahoo.com.