Radio devices help find missing people
There are several reports each year of elderly U.P. residents or people with dementia who wander away.
And there’s technology being used in the U.P. that can help find these people and bring them home safely.
A LifeTracker device looks like a watch, but it’s actually a radio transmitter that emits a silent signal every two seconds.
The signal has a range of about half a mile in wooded areas.
In open, flat terrain, the range increases to three miles or more.
“If it’s attached and the battery is up to date, we’re going to find them,” Marquette County Sheriff Mike Lovelace said. “I guarantee you, at some point in time, we will find them, usually within a few minutes.”
LifeTracker devices are often used to help find older residents with Alzheimer’s or autistic children.
One other group of people may also find them especially useful.
“Even more recently, if you have a military veteran that’s come back with an injury, traumatic brain injury, they’re susceptible to wandering also,” Sheriff Lovelace said.
No one is turned away from the Marquette County LifeTracker program for an inability to pay.
For more information about how to join the program, call the Alzheimer’s Association U.P. regional office in Marquette at (906) 228-3910.