Dartmouth Program Aims To Help Caretakers

Those caring for family members who suffer from autism, alzheimers, or dementia worry about what will happen if they're loved ones wonder off and go missing.

When those incidents occur police have to spend time gathering information about that person before a search can get underway.

Acting Dartmouth Police Chief Robert Szala told WBSM's Phil Paleologos that they are working on a program that will allow them to collect this information before an incident takes place.

"We're working on a program where we can have their information in the station, available, that way if we do have to go looking for them we have accurate information and a current picture," said Szala.

Szala says that information can then be transmitted over smartphones which will aid in the search process.

"With smartphones our dispatcher can take a picture of the person, they can send out to all the officers on the road, so before we even get activated the officers on the road already know who they're looking for," said Szala "so they may catch them walking down the street and be able to bring them home that much quicker."

In addition Szala says that officers are also on hand to provide advice and other information to caretakers.

"Our thing is that we're trying to meet these people and the caretakers and then that way we can give them a little bit of advice or if they have any questions that we can help them with instead of just dropping it off," said Szala.