SALINAS, Calif.- A new tool at the Monterey County Sheriff's Department is making waves in the search and rescue field.
Radio waves, that is.
Six months ago, the Monterey County Sheriff's Department purchased a high-tech tool through a grant to help in their search and rescue efforts for at-risk people. It's part of the national campaign called Project Lifesaver.
"It's been popular on the East Coast and now it's starting to come to the West Coast," said Sgt. Joe Moses, who is heading the project locally.
Moses showed off the contraption Wednesday. The tool is made up of three parts. One part resembles a 1950's TV antenna, which is then pared up with a receiver. At-risk people, who can qualify to be part of this Project Lifesaver if they are suffering from dementia or autism, wear a white bracelet that emits it's own frequency. That frequency is picked up by the antenna and sends out a signal of loud chirps or beeps through the receiver.
"This equipment is usually good in a city and we can pick up signal from about a mile away," said Moses.
And so far, the tool is proving successful. Moses showed off the device a day after it was used to find a Salinas man suffering from dementia. Moses said the man wandered off from family members Tuesday. He was wearing one of the transmitter bracelets and search teams located him three hours later miles away from where his family first reported him missing.
"Once a person is reported missing by his or her caretaker, we're able to take the equipment out and pinpoint where the radio waves are coming from and then pinpoint our victim."
We decided to put the Project Lifesaver tool to the test Wednesday. KION Photo-journalist Fidel Jacobo agreed to be the test subject. He wore the white bracelet on his wrist and hid in a 300 ft radius around the department. It took Moses less than 10 minutes to track Jacobo down behind a concrete wall west of the department. Moses said it's a very valuable tool to have.
"Project Lifesaver makes it that much quicker to find them. In the past, we used thousands and thousand of dollars to try to locate people and Project Lifesaver gives us one more tool to find people faster and also we save money," said Moses.
It is costly though. The tool was paid for by a grant and operates off of donations only. It costs about $300 to set up with each family or caretaker and there's a $25 a month fee. Moses said they're trying to set up a fund for people who can't afford to pay the fees.
Moses said one example of when this tool might have come in handy was tracking down a Pacific Grove man reported missing about three months ago. Monterey Police have still not found the 82-year-old who was suffering from dementia. Moses said his family was in the process of getting a Project Lifesaver bracelet.
