GREEN BAY (WLUK) — Green Bay will soon have a statewide rescue program to help find people with cognitive disorders who are prone to running away.
In Project Lifesaver, a person at risk wears a bracelet around their wrist or ankle. The bracelet does not use GPS tracking, but instead emits a high-frequency signal that is inaudible to the human ear but is detected by a receiver.
“The program is designed to cover everyone from autism to Alzheimer’s and dementia. So everything from the smallest child to the oldest adult,” said Deputy Sara McCormick, who works for the Wood County Sheriff’s Department and is a national trainer for Project Lifesaver.
This is for the people affected by these disorders who are wandering and lost but cannot get home alone. If we do not find them quickly, they are likely to either be injured or sadly die.
Search and recovery times for agencies using Project Lifesaver average 30 minutes, 95% faster than standard operations without Project Lifesaver.
Thanks to grants, the Green Bay Police Department was able to secure the equipment and training needed to start the program.
“The message is that we are here to help. We are here to do whatever we can to improve our response times,” said Gerald Gorin.
He is one of four officers in the GBPD’s Behavioral Health Division. Each officer specializes in a different role. For example, Gorin’s area of expertise is intellectual and developmental disabilities.
For two days, Gorin and his colleagues from the Department of Mental Health will receive classroom and field training with Deputy McCormick.
“As everyone in the community knows, people have disappeared in the past and will continue to do so in the future. This is another tool we are providing to our department to help keep response time as short as possible so we can get your loved ones home before something tragic happens,” Gorin explained.
He said each bracelet costs about $350. GBPD will only have about a half dozen bracelets to start with, so it will rely on donations and additional grants to grow the program.
