GPS Tracking Bracelet Aids Rescue of Mentally Disabled Man
8 Jan 2014Local police department helps save a man thanks to a GPS tracking bracelet.
Global positioning systems (GPS) have long since been helping in more ways than navigation and direction assistance for pedestrians and drivers. Many businesses, city authorities, and even healthcare centers are utilizing real-time GPS tracking data for improving the health and vitality of their employees and their patients. One good example of this is with the GPS tracking bracelets being used by the Sarasota Police Department.
The bracelets are part of a program called Project Lifesaver, where at-risk mentally or physically disabled individuals wear bracelets or ankle bracelets with built-in GPS trackers in them. Most recently, they helped the police department find a mentally disabled man who had wandered away from his home. James Mondello, 50, has a mental disability due to a previous head injury. He wandered off around 9pm at night from his home in the Banyan area.
Police authorities were informed that he was part of Project Lifesaver, and they used the real time data provided by the GPS tracking bracelet to find his location. By tracking his location using the GPS technology, he was found nearby at Caspersen Beach, which was approximately two miles from his home.
It is suspected he may not have survived had they not found him so quickly, due to the tide that was expected to come in shortly. It not only found him quickly and safely, but may have just saved his life.
This man is one of 75 participants of Project Lifesaver, each of which wears a GPS tracking bracelet at all times. They have mental or physical disabilities, including Alzheimer’s dementia, Down’s syndrome, and autism. It includes children and adults who are at risk of wandering off and becoming lost or confused.
Project Lifesaver has been helping find individuals throughout the Sarasota area for about six years now. The bracelet is light and comfortable, and worn on their wrist. It has a GPS tracker installed in the bracelet, and there is a 100 percent success rate of finding individuals that have gone missing, who are wearing one of the tracking bracelets.
Danny Robbins, a police officer for the Sarasota Police Department, explained to reporters exactly how the tracking bracelet works:
“Each client is given their own radio frequency downloaded into our database Project Lifesaver. Using a tracking device the bracelet gives off a chirping sound that grows louder the closer it gets to the person who’s missing. Mondello’s bracelet led officers to the mangroves off Caspersen Beach more than two miles from the Banyan Residence.”
Though they cost $275 with a $7 monthly fee, nobody is turned away and they have financial assistance available. The system has a start of fee of $275 dollars and $7 monthly maintenance fee, but there is financial assistance available. Since the program began in 2007, Robbins said there have been 50 missing person cases and all 50 have been successfully found using the Project Lifesaver device.
As of today, there have been 2,775 rescues for Project Lifesaver.
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