Police Credit CodeRED with Saving Hours in Search for Missing Woman

Ankeny police said a CodeRED notification system likely saved them hours of time in an Aug. 8 search for a missing elderly woman on Aug. 8.

A 68-year-old woman, who suffers from dementia, walked away from Mercy Clinic North on the afternoon of Aug. 8.

About 10 p.m. that evening, officers used CodeRED to send phone, email and text alerts to 10,000 residents in a two-mile radius, according to a release from the police department. Tips came in almost immediately allowing officers to confirm the direction that the woman was headed, according to the release.

Officers and a tracking dog, Gunnar, found the woman in the Petsmart parking lot about 20 minutes after the CodeRED message went out.

“Using the CodeRED notification allowed them to obviously redirect all of their resources to the area the woman was last seen,” said Jon Davis, Deputy Director at Polk County Emergency Management, told the CodeRED company.

The 68-year-old woman was the fourth missing person Polk County Emergency Management found through CodeRED in 2013.

“The activation of CodeRED likely saved us hours of time searching and thousands of dollars, but more significant is that it directly resulted in saving the life of this missing woman,” Police Chief Gary Mikulec said in a release from the city.

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