http://www.sweethome...m?story_no=8001
New free service helps cops find man
( Sweet Home , Oregon)
March 26, 2008
"This is an urgent message from the Sweet Home Police Department."
Those words resulted in the location of a missing man last week, the first time Sweet Home police have used the new service called the "A Child is Missing Alert Program." The department implemented the free service at the beginning of the year.
The program is also used to find adults suffering from Alzheimer's or who have mental disabilities.
On March 18, a 35-year-old man with mental disabilities disappeared from his care home in the area of Ironwood and 12th streets.
Police received a report that he had left his foster care facility at approximately 6:30 a.m., Communications Supervisor Penny Leland said. It is not unusual for the man to wander away, she said. Police looked for him, but after an initial search, police notified the alert program at 10:38 a.m.
Within a minute, the system called hundreds of Sweet Home phone numbers, Leland said.
The call said, "This is an urgent message. Sweet Home Police Department is looking for a missing person in need of medical assistance in your area."
The message provided a detailed physical description of the man and what he was wearing and reported where he was last seen.
The message also instructed residents to call the police at 367-5183 and not to approach the missing person, Leland said, which alarmed some residents.
Leland received the message perfectly on her cell phone voicemail, she said, but on her home phone, the first part of the message was cut off and started with the description and then the warning.
"I think maybe a lot of people just didn't hear the first part," Leland said. Police officials are sending information and recordings to program officials based in Florida.
Police included the warning because when the missing man becomes frightened, he could be unpredictable, Leland said, "but he's not considered dangerous or anything like that."
But police could use the system to help locate persons who are dangerous, Leland said. They might use it in the event of a jailbreak or a prison break.
At 11:13 a.m., a Senior Center bus pulled up outside the department, Leland said. The bus driver, Martin Cotney got off the bus with the missing man.
Cotney reported that he had first noticed the missing man at approximately 7 a.m. about four miles out on Old Holley Road, Leland said. He didn't think anything of it at the time because he passes many who walk the road.
At about 9 a.m., he saw him again, near Holley Market, Leland said. The Senior Center contacted the bus driver by radio after the alert went out. As he returned from a stop in Crawfordsville, the bus driver saw the missing man again, on his way back into town about a mile outside Sweet Home on Highway 228.
The bus driver stopped and asked the man's name, Leland said. The man told him who he was and that he was lost and didn't know his last name. The bus driver transported him to the Police Department.
"It was the first time, and it worked," Leland said of the program. She estimated that the missing man had walked approximately 8.2 miles.
She didn't have the statistics on how many calls the system made, she said, but it can dial up to 1,000 phone numbers within 60 seconds of activating the alert system.
When an officer verifies that a child, elderly or disabled person is missing, police call the alert program. A program technician records an alert message and then activates the calling system to notify a neighborhood or community.
The program does not have unlisted numbers in its calling files, but it can add unlisted phone and cell numbers provided by owners who want to be contacted in case of a search in their area.
For further information, visit www.achildismissing.org or call Sweet Home police at 367-5181.