SILVER ALERT: North Carolina plans to introduce a program today aimed at helping law enforcement agencies find adults with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other cognitive disabilities who have been reported missing. The Silver Alert was modeled after the well-known Amber Alert program used to notify the media and flash messages on road signs whenever a child is reported missing or abducted. The program follows passage this summer of a state law empowering law enforcement officials and the N.C. Center for Missing Persons to begin issuing a public alert as soon as a person with dementia or some other cognitive impairment is reported missing. The alerts will trigger statewide broadcasts of missing-person reports to law enforcement agencies, and information on missing elderly persons will be distributed to the news media. Unlike the Amber Alert system, though, Silver Alerts will not be broadcast on the emergency alert system, which transmits a tone signal to televisio! n and radio stations indicating that an emergency message will follow.
(Lorenzo Perez, THE NEWS & OBSERVER, 12/19/07) (Insider)
1 comment:
This is wonderful news. Every time I would hear an amber alert on the radio, I would stay on the lookout for the child, as I'm sure other citizens were too. What a relief this must be for families.
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