The Green Bay Police Department is joining Project Lifesaver, a nationwide search and recovery program for lost at-risk individuals, Aug. 27, 2024. PC: Fox 11 Online
GREEN BAY, WI (WTAQ-WLUK) — A nationwide rescue program intended to help locate individuals with cognitive disorders who may be prone to wandering will soon be available in Green Bay.
“Project Lifesaver” entails an at-risk individual wearing a bracelet on their wrist or ankle. The bracelet does not use GPS tracking; instead, it emits a radio frequency signal that is not audible to the human ear, but is detected by a receiver.
“The program is designed to cover anybody from autism, all the way to Alzheimer’s and dementia. So anywhere from the littlest child to the oldest adult,” said Deputy Sara McCormick. She’s with the Wood County Sheriff’s Department and is a national instructor of Project Lifesaver.
This is for the people that are affected by these disorders that would wander and become lost, but cannot come home on their own. Chances are, if we don’t recover them quickly, they’ll become either hurt or unfortunately, deceased.
Search and recovery times for agencies who utilize Project Lifesaver average 30 minutes. This is 95% faster than standard operations without Project Lifesaver.
Thanks to grant funds, the Green Bay Police Department has secured the equipment and training to begin the program.
“The message is that we’re here to help. We’re here to do everything we can to improve our response times,” said Gerald Gorin.
He is one of four officers in GBPD’s Behavioral Health Unit. Each officer specializes in a different role. For example, Gorin’s area of expertise is intellectual and developmental disabilities.
Over the course of two days, Gorin and his fellow behavioral health officers are training in the classroom and in the field with Deputy McCormick.
“As everybody in the community knows, we’ve had people go missing in the past and it’s going to happen in the future. This is another tool we’re bringing to our department to make that response time as little as possible so that we bring your loved ones home before anything tragic happens,” Gorin explained.
He said each bracelet costs roughly $350. GBPD will only have around half a dozen bracelets to start, so it will rely on fundraising and additional grants to expand the program.
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