Law enforcement officers from three different agencies in Hall County received some updated training this week that should help them in certain missing persons searches.
Project Lifesaver was brought to the area by Pilot Club of Gainesville in 2007.
The club provides tracking devices for people with special needs who might have a tendency to wander. The club then provides local law enforcement agencies with equipment to conduct tracking. Gainesville Pilot Club members raised the money for the initiative and then received matching funds from the Pilot International Foundation.
The Hall County Sheriff's Office (HCSO) has partnered with the local non-profit since the inception of the program, and HCSO spokesman Derreck Booth said a dozen deputies participated in the recertification process this week.
"Today [Tuesday] they actually went out in the field at our training center [on Allen Creek Road] and the teachers actually hid some of the transmitters that a person would wear and sent folks out to find them," Booth said. "They were successful at finding all of them."
Booth said the technology is fairly simple, but it's invaluable when it comes to locating someone who may have wandered away from home.
"It's radio technology, basically," Booth said. "You wear this little thing that's basically the size of a watch...it has a transmitter inside, it has batteries like a watch, and it can be worn on the wrist or an ankle. It stays on [the person] during baths, showers - you don't ever take it off."
Law enforcement comes into the picture with equipment that tracks the transmission signal from the personal devices.
"Our deputies have these radio receivers - if you will - with antennas on them," Booth said. When the receiver is near the personal device, it picks up an audible tone.
"[Our instructors told us] a search for someone can go from an all-night search - 10 hours in the cold, you know - down to 20 minutes," Booth said.
The devices can be worn by adults with cognitive issues such as Alzheimer's Disease or dementia or children who have autism - anything that makes the person prone to wander, according to Booth. And,he said, the local Pilot Club picks up the expense for the bracelets and the batteries.
Sherill Day with the Pilot Club of Gainesville said in an email that right now just a handful of clients use the tracking devices.
"We have five clients with bracelets at present and will be placing two more within the next couple of weeks since the recertification has been completed," Day said. "As a result of Lesley Congdon, Lisa Shows and Scott Crain being involved with the training as well - all Hall County Board of Education and members of our club - some of the members of law enforcement began mentioning other people they were aware of who they had had to look for that also might benefit from a bracelet. We will acquire what we need to get this program back to the level it is intended to perform."
Officers with the Gainesville Police Department and the Flowery Branch Police Department also participated in this week's training exercise.
For more information on the Pilot Club of Gainesville, follow this link to the club's Facebook page.
