Staff Reports
Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department deputies and Columbus Fire Department personnel received specialized training recently to help with situations involving people with special needs or disorders who have wandered from a safe location and cannot find their way back to safety.
Project Lifesaver training was conducted April 30 in the Training Room at the sheriff’s department to instruct how to handle to incidents involving people with Alzheimer’s disease, autism, Down syndrome and related disorders.
TRIAD, a branch of the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, and Sgt. Jim Stevens obtained a grant from the Custer Nugent Foundation to get the Project Lifesaver program up and running.
Initially, 50 transmitters were purchased and will be assigned to clients. A total of six receivers that can pinpoint the location of the transmitters were also purchased. The transmitters can be detected up to 3 miles away. Three of the receivers will be kept at the sheriff’s department and three will be assigned to Columbus Fire Department.
Four deputies and three Columbus Fire Department personnel are being trained on the use of the receivers, and will be certified to train others as electronic search specialists.
There is no cost to the client, but some guidelines must be met in order to become a client.
For more information: triad@bartholomew.in.gov.
