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1 1 1Thursday, December 29, 2 0 1 6 | OAKVILLE BEAVER | www.insideHALTON.com Police set to launch Project Lifesaver Jan. 26 New rapid response, rescue program being implemented to deal with wandering people by Steve LeBlanc Metroland West Media Halton police will launch Project Lifesaver Jan. 26, 2017. The new rapid response and res cue program is being implemented to deal with an increasing number of wandering people in the region. To date, in 2 0 1 6 , 4 8 people fell under this category, up from 31 in 2015. Most wanderers are those with cognitive impairments, such as de mentia, Alzheimer' s or autism. Also on the rise are officer hours and officer dollars associated with searches for those who have wan dered, more than double over the previous year in both categories -- 8 7 7 hours and $ 3 8 ,9 1 3 .4 1 -- ac cording to a report presented by Sgt. Dave Tutte of the Regional Commu nity Mobilization Bureau, during a recent meeting of the Halton Police Services Board at police headquar ters. W hen looking at the rise in offi cer hours and dollars over 2 0 1 5 , the drastic increase was largely as a re sult of the case of Helen Robertson, a Burlington woman with Alzheimer' s who went missing this past summer and still has not been found. within a few miles from home and search times have been reduced from hours and days to minutes. Recovery times for Proj ect Lifesaver clients average 3 0 minutes, 95 per cent less time than standard opera tions, said Tutte. "The intention is really to get as many people regis tered who have a tendency to wander; have them reg istered and signed up into the program and just have it expand in our community." Candidates for the pro- gram will be identified through police reports, community partners, word of mouth and the Halton Region website, he said. Fi nancial assistance for eligi ble low-income clients can be arranged through Halton Region. Battery life 60 days One of the benefits is the battery life of 6 0 days where as other programs might get 12 hours of battery life or 2 4 hours at best, said Tutte. Visits from Victims Ser- vices to change a battery presents an opportunity to check in on a client, develop a rapport with the client and determine if perhaps there are other community ser vices that might be engaged to help the client, according to Tutte. Currently, there are eight officers trained as Project Lifesaver instructors, and early in January 2 0 1 7 , the 70 remaining emergency services officers will be trained as basic operators, said Tutte. Clients registered in Halton who go missing in another jurisdiction can be tracked provided that jurisdiction is registered through Project Lifesaver, according to Tutte. LAST CALL FO RO U R FALL EXHIBITIONS THROUGH FRIDAY 30 DECEMBER 2016 Z in T a y lo r: F iv e U n it s o f H a z e O a k v ille G a lle r ie s in G a ir lo c h G a r d e n s Program based in Virginia Project Lifesaver, approved for implementation in October, is a notfor-profit organization based out of Virginia and a leader in the search and rescue held for more than 17 years, said Tutte. In Ontario, the ser vice is used by Niagara, Peel, York and Guelph police, among others, he said. Once approved by Halton police as someone suitable for the pro gram, a client would wear a small waterproof personal transmitter on their wrist or ankle 24/7. Every 60 days a member of the Victim Servic es Unit, which administers the pro gram, would visit a client to change the battery. If the participant goes missing, their caregiver notifies Project Lifesaver, which then deploys a trained emergency team to respond. Halton police has purchased two receiving antennas one to be located at police headquarters on Bronte Road and one in Milton, so "it's evenly spread out across the region." Each client has a designated fre quency number that responders are able to track through the receivers. "Most who wander are found J u d ith S c o tt O a k v ille G a lle r ie s a t C e n t e n n ia l S q u a r e STARTING U P OUP WWW.OAKVILLEGALLERIES.COM Zin Taylor, Object on a Cube with Incense (voidflower), 2016. Courtesy of the artist and Supportico Lopez, Berlin. 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