New program will help assist authorities in finding special needs people
ANTRIM CO., MI -- When someone is missing, every second counts.
Now the Antrim County Sheriff's Office has a new tool to help find missing people faster.
It’s a scary situation for anyone -- a missing family member or friend.
Now imagine that person has special needs.
In Antrim County, a new program could be the key to tracking them down.
It’s a lifeline for people who have Autism, Dementia or Alzheimer’s in case they get lost.
It's like a little bug because it beeps and will lead police right to that person.
Thanks to a grant written by the Traverse Bay Area Intermediate School District School Nurse, Mary Robinson, Antrim County received this new $2600 dollar technology at no cost.
The time -- 8:36 in the morning. Antrim County Sheriff Dan Bean's mission, get lost with a little device. Two search teams formed to find him. It's like a glorified game of hide-go-seek, but this training is hardly for fun. At 8:41, the teams start searching.
“We'll actually have one group head this way, and then the other group will either go out and then in or they might go down and over," explained Andrew Miller, a Project Lifesaver trainer, to the search teams.
That little device Sheriff Bean was carrying? This antenna and receiver are the other half.
"Ok, where did you get the chirp from?" asked on trainer.
"This area here," said an officer.
The teams split up with receivers trying to find the beeping transmission, and ultimately, the Sheriff. This is Project Lifesaver, a new system that's in place in Antrim County.
“He's getting a chirp in this direction, so he's going to follow, use his equipment to follow the chirp."
About three-quarters of a mile away and 20 minutes later, the first team recovered Sheriff Bean. The second team wasn't far behind.
"this is an excellent benefit, especially for the people of this county, especially with the disabilities, people with Alzheimer’s, dementia," said Sheriff Dan Bean.
A Homeland Security Grant has paid for the supplies and training, and now, Antrim County will have the link to help save lives.
“You're coming in, so if they're actually coming between you, then you're able to sit there in the crosswalk, and that's what we're doing," explained Miller.
Project Lifesaver was formed in 1999.
It has more than 11-hundred participating agencies across the US, Canada and Australia.
Project Lifesaver has performed more than 22-hundred searches in the last eleven-years with no serious injuries or deaths ever reported.
If you’re interested in equipping special-needs loved ones with this technology, you can pick up an application at the Antrim County Commission on Aging offices in Bellaire and Mancelona.
