KALKASKA, MI -- When someone is missing, every second counts, and now, a local sheriff's office has a new tool to find the person faster.
Kalkaska County has a new system called "Project Lifesaver."
A transmitter can be placed on a person who may have special needs. The Sheriff's Office has a receiver which can pick up a beep the transmitter puts off.
The new program has a 100 percent success rate and has helped find more than 3,200 people in 30 minutes or less.
"There's a lot of different uses I can see it helping out in," said Kalkaska County Sheriff Dave Israel.
"Not only for elderly with dementia, but also alzheimer's, but especially special needs people, autism, down syndrome, any learning disabled people that really just don't understand or don't know where they're going at all times, and they need to get safe," said Mary Robinson, a school nurse with the Traverse Bay Area ISD and the one who wrote the grant for the program.
The grant was worth $8,000. The county has two transmitters so far and plan to purchase more in the future.
