Police Database To Address Special Needs

— Adults with dementia or children with disabilities cannot always describe who they are or where they belong, but a new police database in Rogers will help find them.

Two 2012 cases of missing children spurred the department to create an opt-in database for those at risk of wandering, said Keith Foster, public information officer.

In July a 7-year-old boy was found wandering on Pleasant Grove Road between Walmart and Chick-fil-A. His father reported the boy missing, but when officers found him he couldn’t communicate.

Another child, 8 years old, was reported missing near midnight and it again took officers 30-45 minutes to find the child.

Neither child could tell officers who they were or where they came from.

A database with names, photos and emergency contact information for children or adults who are prone to wandering and may not be able to speak will help reunite them with their families quicker, Foster said. During 2012 the Rogers Police Department searched for 16 missing adults and 102 missing children.

At A Glance

Database

Sign up for the Rogers Located and Returned Program database will be through Brian Culpepper. For more information call the Rogers Police Department at 479-621-1172. The program is voluntary, free and confidential. Caretakers who want to sign up for Project Lifesaver of Benton County can call the Bella Vista Police Department at 855-3771. The program has a $100 fee. Scholarships are available.

Source: Staff Report

When a child goes missing, standard police procedure is to search the house first, in case the child is hiding or has fallen asleep, Foster said. Next the search widens to the neighborhood and then expands to a wider area. During the search officers will get a photo of the child, but that has to be taken back to the Police Department for a scan.

If that person’s information was in a database officers in their car would be able to instantly pull up a picture and know who they’re looking for, said Brian Culpepper, Rogers’ criminal investigation division.

The Located and Returned Program will be free. Culpepper will keep a current photo and information by calling families each year. Special needs, events that frighten the person or other pertinent search information can be added to the file so officers know the best way to approach a person, Culpepper said.

“They want something familiar which would be their home,” Culpepper said. “The quicker we can get them there the better it is for everybody.”

The Rogers program borrowed some ideas from Project Lifesaver of Benton County, a nonprofit partnership between the Bella Vista Police Department, the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and St. Theodore’s Episcopal Church in Bella Vista.

Project Lifesaver has an information file for each person, but clients are also outfitted with a bracelet or anklet transmitter. Receivers are at the Benton County Sheriff’s Office and Bella Vista Police Department help track the person’s movements.

Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Down Syndrome or autism are all common reasons caretakers set a person up with the tracking transmitter, said Bella Vista Lt. Ryan Harmon who oversees the program.

The local Project Lifesaver has 14 people enrolled and last year there were three who went missing, Harmon said. It took under 30 minutes to find them and get them home in each case, Harmon said.

About half those who use the service are children and half are adults, said Lana McDonald, St. Theodore’s Episcopal church parish administrator. The program focuses on Rogers, Bentonville and Bella Vista areas. Unlike the Rogers database, Project Lifesaver charges $100 set up fee for the device. That is below their cost of $300 and scholarships are available, she said.

Volunteers from the church do monthly battery checks on the transmitters and McDonald sets up the files by taking down details that could help find a person later.

Project Lifesaver isn’t like commercial services that call for help, the caretaker has to call 911 and report the person with the transmitter missing. For those who sign up it adds peace of mind, McDonald said.

“Every program that helps people keep track of people is a good thing,” she said.

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