OSHKOSH, WI (WTAQ) – The Winnebago County Sheriff’s Office has joined a group of law enforcement agencies that help find lost dementia patients quicker.
In 2017, the Oshkosh Police department launched Project Lifesaver. The program originated in Virginia in 1999, and Chief Dean Smith brought the idea with him when taking over in 2016. Sergeant Todd Wrage is in charge of the program.
“The growth of the program is dependent upon getting other municipalities and county agencies to come on board as an associate member agency, and Winnebago County [Sheriff’s Office] did that. So now we’re able to provide service to our vulnerable population county-wide,” Wrage told WTAQ News.
It’s a radio tracking system designed for people with diagnoses that involve a wandering risk such as Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Autism and Down Syndrome.
“The client wears a transmitter that puts out a radio frequency signal once every second, 24/7, 365 [days a year]. So if the client wanders, their care giver contacts the local law enforcement agency and we deploy electronic search specialists with special equipment to locate them,” Wrage explained.
If the client wanders and is missing, the caregiver calls authorities and they deploy specially trained electronic search specialists to the area the client was last seen and begin searching using radio receivers.
“National average response time and safe recovery time is about 30 minutes,” Wrage said. “This gives them a feeling of insurance that if their loved one wanders, that they can contact their local law enforcement agency and we can locate them and return them home safely and quickly.”
These radio receivers can detect the signal for up to a mile and the ground and five to seven miles in the air.
With the sheriff’s office joining Project Lifesaver, the effort now covers all of Winnebago County.
“We’ve had 13 clients since we started. They come and go just by virtue of their conditions. Right now we have 7 active clients, and I know that there are clients already out around Winnebago County that are just waiting for service. That’s why it was important to get this started,” Wrage said.
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