The Portland Police Department, Jay County Sheriff Department, and The Portland Fire Department have teamed up, to try and bring Care Trak to Jay County. Care Trak would help first responders to locate residents with special needs who wander off. Individuals with certain medical conditions such as Dementia, Alzheimer’s, Autism, Downs Syndrome, traumatic brain injury and other conditions can benefit from this program.
Introduced in 1986 the Care Trak system allows family members to track loved ones who have a history of wandering from their home. The waterproof, submergible mobile tracking system uses a radio frequency wrist unit to locate lost individuals. When an individual wearing this tamper-proof system is reported missing, trained and certified law enforcement and fire, rescue agencies can begin the search using the radio telemetry system. The hand-held, directional response system is targeted at the specific frequency assigned to each individual, allowing searchers the ability to track within a few inches of the lost person, day or night, inside or outside.
The telemetry system is preferred over GPS and cellphone units because the signal can be tracked inside buildings, in heavy foliage or in times of heavily clouded skies – something that is not the case with newer technologies. Over it’s more than 25 years existence, the Care Trak system has successfully located several thousand missing participants, with response times of less than thirty minutes. While investigating a child with autism that had wandered away, his mother informed Chief Springer of this equipment. While researching the product, it was discovered that a neighboring agency uses the equipment. The Delaware County Sheriff’s Department has been using the equipment for approx. 15 years.
On May 9th 2017 Portland Police Chief Springer, Jay County Sheriff Ford and Portland Fire Chief Weitzel met with Delaware County Sgt. Polk in Muncie. The first responders got to see the equipment work first hand. An agreement was made that Delaware County would assist with the young Jay County child, until funds could be raised for this program in Jay County. Jay County now has one person using this equipment. We have no equipment to track in Jay County, Delaware County would bring equipment in to search. This would cause a delay in searching.
All law enforcement agencies in Jay County have offered to assist with this program. To bring the program into Jay County it would cost $6000.00. This covers all equipment and training. The only on-going fee is batteries, that cost $7.00 or $33.00 a year per transmitter. It is our hope to offer this program for free to families in Jay County that can use it. For that to happen, we would need donations. Donations can be sent to the Jay County Sheriff Reserves. If your group has questions or would like to request a speaker on the topic, please call Chief Springer at the Portland Police Department 260-726-7161.