Clarkstown Unveils 'Project Lifesaver' Today

Supervisor Alex Gromack and Councilman George Hoehmann are set to announce today the launch of Clarkstown's Project Lifesaver, a public safety program designed to use technology in assisting those who care for individuals with cognitive disabilities such as Alzheimer's disease, Autism and Downs Syndrome who become missing due to wandering. 

The Project Lifesaver program places personalized radio transmitters on identified persons who may wander away from the safety of their homes.  These transmitters assist caregivers and local emergency agencies in locating those individuals.    

Town officials and police officers will be demonstrating how the program works today.

Hoehmann proposed creating Project Lifesaver for Clarkstown when he joined the Town Boad in 2009. The program is offered across the country and places a bracelet that pulsates an electronic signal that if a person who has a history of wandering or eloping can be tracked.

Hoehmann said Project Lifesaver has resulted in more than 2,100 saves across the country and it has been succesfully implemented in Westchester and communities in New Jersey. Clarkstown will be the only municipality in Rockland to have this type of program, he said.

Clarkstown held several meetings on the proposal and decided to move forward with the program using funds gained through criminal seizures.

Hoehmann said that for those who qualify, people with alzheimers, dementia, special needs and autism, the search time and resources required will be dramatically reduced. He noted that the Clarkstown Police Department responds to more than 1,300 missing persons reports annually involving a variety of people of all different ages.

Clarkstown is also part of the county's new Silver Alert system, which was recently launched to help speed up the search process when adults in the same at-risk groups go missing. Silver Alert allows families and caregivers to register at-risk individuals with local police and provide detailed information - and current photos - about them that can be quickly distributed to police officers when an individual goes missing.

Siliver Alert has been compared to the Amber Alert system, which is used to help police find missing children.