Oak Forest police to use radio tracking to find wanderers

OAK FOREST (AP) – Oak Forest Police Chief Greg Anderson began researching radio tracking systems for those at risk for wandering away from home after a memorable emergency call the department received last spring.

An elderly woman wandered away from her home and couldn’t find her way back. Oak Forest police mobilized just about every staff member working that day to look for her.

As luck would have it, the search took only about three hours, and the woman was found unharmed in neighboring Midlothian. But the search took a lot of people, and it could have taken much longer with tragic results, Anderson said.

Oak Forest is joining a growing list of communities, including Palos Hills, Orland Park and Lockport, that employ radio tracking systems for seniors who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and children who are diagnosed with autism or Down syndrome.

Companies such as Care Trak or the one Oak Forest will use, Project Lifesaver, provide tracking systems that don’t require as much manpower, increase the chances of finding a lost loved one and cut down on search time.

The Chicago-based Alzheimer’s Association says six of 10 Alzheimer’s sufferers will wander away from home at some point, resulting in about 32,000 cases nationally of people wandering away from home or long-term care facilities each year. Many become lost and disoriented and cannot find their way home.

Officer Eric Wynn is shepherding the project in Oak Forest. One benefit is only a few officers with the necessary equipment are needed for a search, instead of huge teams.

“We have had a few calls like this, and we’ve located them. But it took the activation of all available units. This (system) eliminates having to do that. And it’s better to be prepared for something before a tragedy happens,” he said.

Project Lifesaver is being used by about 1,150 police departments in 45 states, as well as in Canada and Australia. Since 1999, the company’s equipment has been used in more than 2,300 rescues.

Oak Forest has bought two transmitters, and the company has donated two more. The transmitters are attached to a plastic wristband and are about the size of a wrist watch. Wynn said the police department would like the city to buy about six more transmitters.

The city also has devices to find the wrist transmitters, the signals of which become louder as the searcher gets closer to them.

On the ground, the handheld trackers have a range of about a mile. In the air, as in a helicopter, the range increases to five to seven miles because the signal isn’t blocked by objects such as buildings and cars.

A volunteer last week wore a transmitter and was given a five-minute head start on foot. Three officers with tracking devices were able to locate her within 11 minutes, about a half-mile away from where she left. Wynn said typical searches should be done within 30 minutes.

The city will make the first four transmitters it has available at no cost. Families will have to show proof of a medical condition warranting the need for a transmitter, police said.

Should more families apply to have one, the one-time cost would be $250, with an additional $6 a month for battery replacement.

Peggy Vasilopulos, of Tinley Park, knows all about the dangers of having a loved one wander off. Her husband, Ray, suffers from dementia and now lives in a nursing home. Peggy said when Ray first began to show the inclination to wander, she kept a closer eye on him and put alarms on the doors but it wasn’t enough of a deterrent.

The worst incident came in September 2009, when Ray wandered off while the two were visiting Navy Pier in Chicago. Several hours later, he turned up in South Bend, Ind., apparently after boarding a train.

“I would have appreciated having something like that,” she said of the tracking system. “That would have been a great thing.”

Chicago police asked for the public’s help Friday in locating retired police officer Eldge Walton, 74, who suffers from dementia and cancer and wandered from his home in the 9200 block of South Blackstone Avenue in Chicago.

Palos Hills uses the Care Trak system. Deputy Police Chief James Boie said he wished the village had the tracking system in place about two years ago, when an autistic boy wandered away from his home. The search lasted about four or five hours, and the boy was found unharmed. But the police department had just about every available staffer take part in the search, along with several other agencies, including state police.

“If he would have had the device on, I think we could have found him within about 15 or 30 minutes,” Boie said. In training exercises, Boie said officers have hid the device and it’s been located every time within 30 minutes. Palos Hills is making its transmitters available at no cost to residents.

Tracking programs have been widely praised, as long as they are voluntary.

Ed Yohnka, spokesman for the American Civil Liberties Union in Chicago, said the key is choice.

“We want to make sure that adults have the capacity and the opportunity to engage in informed consent. If a loved one is in the advanced stages of the disease, you would hope that health care power of attorney allows loved ones to make that decision for them,” Yohnka said. “If it’s the early stages, you hope the sufferer would be consulted first.”

Gerardo Cardenas, director of communication for AARP Illinois, said that when such devices are used there needs to be a balance of privacy with safety. The organization has a favorable view of the devices as long as they don’t become too obtrusive or violate an individual’s privacy in any way.