Project Lifesaver helping residents, families stay safe

By Megan Rogers Sequim Gazette • July 26, 2023 1:30 am
Sequim Gazette photo by Megan Rogers / Linda Spreine, a volunteer at the Sequim Police Department, details how Project Lifesaver receivers work at a Sequim Cares meeting last week. The transmitters start beeping as officers get closer to the missing person wearing the device.
Sequim Gazette photo by Megan Rogers / Linda Spreine, a volunteer at the Sequim Police Department, details how Project Lifesaver receivers work at a Sequim Cares meeting last week. The transmitters start beeping as officers get closer to the missing person wearing the device.

The numbers from the Alzheimer’s Association are stark: Barring the development of a cure or prevention, the number of Americans affected by Alzheimer’s disease are expected to grow to 12.7 million.

To help people who have a tendency to wander — including those affected by Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, Down syndrome, traumatic brain injury and other medical issues — local law enforcement officials are using Project Lifesaver.

Developed by a nonprofit in Chesapeake, Va., in 1999, Project Lifesaver (PLS) was designed to protect “at risk” populations in communities by combining location technologies, search-and-rescue methods and community policing courses for first responders.

The result was recovery times for Project Lifesaver agencies average 30 minutes — 95 percent less time than standard operations without the program, according to Project Lifesaver representatives.

Agencies in Clallam County started using PLS in 2006. Linda Spreine has been a volunteer at the Sequim Police Department for the past five years and has served as the PLS assistant coordinator for the department for a year.

Spreine detailed the ins and outs of the program to the Sequim Cares group on July 20.

Individuals who qualify for Project Lifesaver are given a bracelet with a transmitter in it. Each device has its own frequency that those searching for the missing person will hear beep as they get closer.

“First the police officers respond to the location and assess the situation and then they will call out whoever’s on duty that has the training to get the equipment and get going,” Spreine said.

The average length of a missing person search without Project Lifesaver is about nine hours, according to Spreine; that can cost the department about $13,500.

With the PLS technology, Spreine said an average search is cut to about 30 minutes and costs the department just $750.

“You want to find the missing people fast while they’re still healthy,” she said. “This is the easiest way.”

The risk for those with Alzheimer’s is particularly significant with a 50-50 chance of finding them alive, she said.

Spreine added that local law enforcement may add a drone for over-land searches, though Project Lifesaver would have to modify the equipment for it to be connected to a drone.

She said she hopes to get these bracelets, which cost about $50 each, to more people who need them.

Those interested in Project Lifesaver can call Spreine at 360-689-7227. For more about the national program, visit projectlifesaver.org.