County’s Project Lifesaver looks to expand

Back in 2012, Lansing resident Johanna Kirkwood, 81, wandered away from her home and, after a lengthy search, was found deceased not far away. After the tragedy, the Tompkins County Sheriff’s Office worked to bring Project Lifesaver — an international program to protect and, when necessary, quickly locate individuals with cognitive disabilities — to Tompkins County.

Tompkins County Sheriff Derek Osborne was at the 9-1-1 Center when Kirkwood went missing, and he said he and his officers “just felt completely hopeless because we assumed she couldn’t have made it too far, but we just couldn’t find her.”

Just as the experience prompted Osborne to look into Project Lifesaver, Kirkwood’s son, Jim Kirkwood, called Osborne, looking to support the department in whatever way he could as a thank-you for their efforts to find his mom. Osborne told Jim about Project Lifesaver, and with Jim’s help and financial support, they began the process of bringing the program to the county.

“We got the grant put through and went to other agencies up in Onondaga County to learn about the program and what we needed to get it started,” Osborne said. “That’s where it all came from.”

Now, Tompkins County’s Project Lifesaver is handled mostly by corrections officers in the Sheriff’s Office and serves about 30 people in the area. While the program was formed after the death of a senior resident, participation isn’t age gated. Participants include people of all ages, with conditions like Alzheimer’s, autism, dementia and Down syndrome.

Participants in the program are fitted with a personalized wristband that holds a battery-powered radio transmitter that emits a tracking signal every second of every day. In the event of the wearer wandering off, the signal can be tracked by a trained Sheriff’s Office officer using specialized equipment and, when needed, a helicopter.

Program fees include a $300 deposit for the equipment, which is refunded when the equipment is returned, and a nonrefundable $10 charge every two months for replacement batteries and wrist straps. Still, no one will be denied inclusion in the program due to an inability to pay.

Officer Seth Case has been one of the leaders of the county’s Project Lifesaver for the past several years, often working with fellow Sheriff’s Officer Shawn Hogan. Case explained the overall benefits the program provides for area residents, especially seniors.

“When they get dementia and Alzheimer’s and all that type of stuff, they tend to forget where their mindset is, like, ‘I feel like I should start walking down the street,’” Case said. “And then they’ve forgotten where they were even going, and then they’ll wander off somewhere completely different. … Having that bracelet on with the tracker, it really helps to ease the family members’ minds to make sure that if something were to happen to their elderly loved one, we could go out and track them with our equipment. And we’ll have a huge chance of finding them rather than trying to have a search party started.”

Because the transmitter uses radio signals, it can only be tracked from within about a mile, but it’s still much more reliable than a GPS signal.

“As long as we know their last known location, and maybe what their likes and dislikes are, we can say, ‘all right, they’re definitely avoiding this,’ or ‘they love swimming pools,’ or ‘they love going to this restaurant,’” Case said. “We can start diverting officers in those directions to start using the equipment until we pick up a chirp on radio frequencies on the transmitters.”

While usership grew in the initial years of Project Lifesaver’s founding, it’s since stagnated, which is why Osborne and Case are hoping to expand the program and bring in new users in the coming months. As Case explained, previously, much of their efforts were focused on children.

“This year, we had 20 different parents join in on the Zoom meeting so that they could get knowledge about the program and become educated to see if their child would make a good fit for the program,” Case said. “The Racker center is very good with helping with that. And then obviously, we have our Facebook page. So, I think as of right now, it’s kind of been more pressed upon with the children than it has with the elderly. So, I think maybe we do need to advertise a little bit more for the senior population.”

The next several months will be centered around training new officers for the program, reaching out to those who work with senior residents and purchasing a drone to further assist with searches.

“I’d like to see the numbers of clients go up, definitely,” Osborne said. “I think there’s a lot of people out there that maybe aren’t aware of it, or they haven’t taken the time to research it, that could really benefit from this program. And we’d like to hear from them.”

Case said he wants to see the program grow because he’s seen the difference it has already made in users’ lives. He often visits participants’ homes, particularly the children who are enrolled in the program.

“I’ve grown to know a lot of them,” Case said. “I’ve watched a lot of them grow up, even in my short amount of time. Three, four years goes by fast, and these children grow quick. So, it’s amazing to see how their personalities change. So, myself and Shawn, when we go out, we play with the kids for a little bit, and we make sure when they see us, our presence is wanted and that they don’t try to push us away.”

And it’s a similar experience for those in the senior population.

“The family members are very grateful that we come out and offer our help and our services because the public needs it,” he said. “I don’t think anyone wants to see their family members become lost, and that’s when tragic things happen. And no one wants to see a family member die because they couldn’t be found, or seriously injured.”

Osborne said that he’s glad Project Lifesaver is a Sheriff’s Office program, and he’s going to continue to be involved in the project’s expansion in the coming months.

“Overall, this type of program just gives more and more evidence to the caring the Sheriff’s Office has for our community and the things we try to do that aren’t necessarily law enforcement related, in any stretch of the imagination, but it’s a good community thing,” he said. “And we’re really proud to have this program.”

Those interested in joining Project Lifesaver can call the Sheriff’s Office at (607) 257-1345 or visit tompkinscountyny.gov/sheriff-0.