Project Lifesaver was implemented in 2002
at the Lynchburg Sheriff's Office
We wanted to offer this to the citizens
of Lynchberg to give the caregivers
and family members peace of mind that
there loved ones can be found quickly
Well I was a police officer in Westpeak
Virginia for 33 years
One of my jobs was commanding officer of
special operations which was
SWOT and search and rescue.
We were having a lot of recurring cases
for alzheimer's patients that had wondered
and frankly we weren't doing a very
good job of finding them.
And I really was getting a little tired
and disheartened about
having to tell families we were
discontinuing the search or worse, we had
found them however
Project Lifesaver, number one is a tool to
help public safety personnel locate people
that have a condition that would cause
them to wonder
It's not just equipment, thats the big
thing, were not just a vendor or something
were a programme.
We have had 92 successful searches
its a great feeling, its a great peace of
mind for families and citizens of
Lynchburg. We enjoy getting to know the
families and getting to build reports with
them, so it really hits home when one
wanders and you know more about them
you have a bond with the family and
the child or the adult.
My fervent hope was to be able to find
something that would help us in, uh,
making these searches more successful. I
came across some information about
wildlife tracking and a thought occurred
to me, if we can do this with wildlife,
why can't we do it with people? So, I was
able to contact a company and get them to
work with me, uh, and develop a
transmitter that could be put on a
person's arm. And that was the start of
Project Lifesaver. Our passion, our
desire, uh, we think Project
Lifesaver, the Lynchberg Project
Lifesaver program, is uh, our premier
community service program, here in the
city of Lynchberg. Uh, we provide it now
at no cost to those that cannot afford it
through an annual fundraiser and so,
but, again the goal behind that is, is
when we bring that individual back home
safely and historically with our 92 all
within thirty minutes or less, um, the
emotion that we feel, the, the
satisfaction that we have done our job
and done it well, with the assistance of
this technology, you can't put a price on
that, because someone's life, someone's
loved one is brought home and um, it
makes a difference.
I tell people when you work at
Project Lifesaver International, it's not
a job, it's a way of life. And you adapt
yourself to it.
I'm not getting a signal.
We're going to have to call in the drone.
I use to describe it and still do as when
you're searching for somebody and you
don't anything like this to help you, you
are actually doing a swag search. And
people say 'Well what's a swag?' I said
it's a scientific wilda** guess.
Before Project Lifesaver, you didn't have
any resources but individuals.
When we first started the program, I mean
it was very bare basics, you know, we had
the receiver, we had the transmitter, uh,
and they were pretty, uh, bare, I mean it
was just a, it was a, something had never
been done before, so we were doing what
we could with what we had.
Uh, the new hat tracking equipment that
could assist with you, assist with the
search, narrow it down, make it a little
faster, give that extra peace of mind to
caregivers.
When the Project Lifesaver went to
Lynchberg sheriffs office, and we had
basic, uh, receivers that we used, in
fact our first rescue we used those
receivers and saved a ninety-two year-old
lady that had wandered from a nursing
home, um, using that equipment she was
located in eight minutes and she would
not have made it until morning, it was in
December and all she had on was a house
coat.
I kept feeling, well we, we need to be
stepping ahead, we need to improve all
the time, we need to make it easier for
the agencies, easier for the people,
give them more, more that they can work
with.
Then, you're actually able to ascend
that through air searches, which was
wonderful, but the availability of
gett'in a helicopter in a timely manner
and gett'in someone available to fly the
helicopter, your having to depend on
other people and other departments and
other resources.
Helicopters are great, I love ' em,
however, their expensive and when you
need ' em, sometimes you can't get 'em,
maintenance issues, weather issues,
crew issues, and even if you can get it,
you're thirty to forty-five minutes and
sometimes an hour away from it arriving
on scene.
Where with the drone, if you had that
you could just implement the search right
there, you don't have to depend on
gett'in an outside agency to come in and
start your search.
Here's something you can have in the
trunk of the car and it gives you what a
helicopter would give you and it gives it
to you much quicker, much cheaper.
I was on a search and rescue at one
point, and the individual, he had
autism, and he had wandered, and he had
actually gone on his bicycle, so we do
not know how far he had gotten at that
point, we weren't gett'in a signal from
his last known location, so of course we
had to spread out our perimeter, but we
live in a very hilly city, there's tons
of hills, low dips, creeks, and he had
actually, gotten along a creek line and
was just gunning it, I mean he had gotten
miles from home, quickly and he was a
young boy, so, um, with having just the
ground units, it made it difficult.
The average alzheimer's search lasts
nine hours. The average cost is fifteen
hundred dollars an hour. You factor that
into, you can search with this equipment
and in thirty minutes find this person,
this program is already paid for itself
and much cheaper than you would have by
launching this massive search.
Lynchberg Project Lifesaver, Project
Lifesaver International delivers exactly
what it says.
You know Project Lifesaver is just
wonderful and it gives that extra peace
of mind to the family members.
I have made the statement that if it was
just one person, that we were able to go
out and bring home safely, uh this
program would be worth it.
I think a lot of people don't realize how
big this problem is and if you don't
think it's a big problem, pick up a
newspaper, go on Facebook and look at all
the searches for people that have
wandered off and not been found