By Bill Vidonic, Times Staff

For more than a day in October 2006, dozens of police, fire and rescue personnel combed the woods in the area surrounding Brian Salyers’ Economy home searching for the autistic 20-year-old.

As temperatures dipped into the 30s overnight, no one knew if Salyers would be found alive. The search had a happy ending; Salyers was safe and sound.

Chris Shallcross, an employee of Economy Ambulance Service, watched the dozens of volunteer firefighters work tirelessly, police officers work overtime and other rescue personnel search for Salyers.

(Picture info: The Times/LUCY SCHALY - Chris Shallcross from Economy Ambulance Service demonstrates how to use a tracking device for patients like those with Alzheimer's disease or autism who tend to wander away from their caregivers or homes. The program is called "Take Me Home.")

“I was trying to figure out a way to find these people” more quickly, said Shallcross, also a Beaver County Emergency Services dispatcher.

Thanks to $10,000 in grants secured by state representatives Sean Ramaley, D-16, Economy, and Jaret Gibbons, D-10, Ellwood City, Shallcross bought equipment that should bring peace of mind to some local residents.

Shallcross has begun the Take Me Home program in Beaver County, in which at-risk people, such as those with autism or Alzheimer’s disease, can wear a tracking bracelet. If a person wearing a bracelet wanders off, rescue personnel can use a radio signal to find them quickly.

Shallcross said he has no doubt there’s a need for the program in Beaver County. A similar program has been offered for about 10 years in Allegheny County, through the Western Pennsylvania Search and Rescue Research and Development Program in Wilkinsburg.

Shallcross said at least six Beaver County families approached that Allegheny County group to ask if they could join. The group said they couldn’t properly monitor Beaver County residents because of the distance.

That program is now available in Beaver County.

Those who join the program will be outfitted with a small radio transmitter that’s worn on a wristband and constantly transmits a signal. Shallcross said the technology doesn’t use a GPS signal, because that satellite signal can be blocked if someone is in the woods.

The wristband is difficult to remove, Shallcross said, and can only be cut off, lessening the chances that someone with Alzheimer’s or autism would be able to remove it. The transmitter also is waterproof, in case someone falls into a lake or stream, he said.

If someone wearing the transmitter disappears, Shallcross said, rescuers could use one of four tracking receivers that will be placed in various places in the county so that they’re quickly available to rescuers.

A rescuer will hook up an antenna to the tracking receiver, which will allow the receiver to pick up the signal from the wristband transmitter. A rescuer can sweep the area where the person was last seen, Shallcross said. With a radius of over a mile on the ground, he said, a rescuer can quickly determine in which direction rescuers must proceed. If an antenna is used on a search helicopter, it could search a 10-mile radius.

Shallcross said it should take rescuers less than 30 minutes to find an endangered person once a search begins.

Shallcross said that not only will some wristbands be bought with grant money for needy families, other individuals also can buy the wrist transmitters at a cost of $250. The only ongoing cost, Shallcross said, is that the battery must be replaced in the wrist transmitter once a month, and members of the western Pennsylvania search organization will go to a person’s house to replace the battery, which costs $5.50.

Shallcross said that with the grant money, he’s bought 12 transmitters and four tracking receivers, along with some replacement batteries. Shallcross said someone who might want a transmitter must also get a doctor’s note, to prove there’s a need.

Bill Vidonic can be reached online at bvidonic@timesonline. com.

Search tools
  These tools are available to rescue personnel to help protect or search for endangered people:
 

• Amber Alert: Used to alert people when a child has been kidnapped. Information is released on television and radio stations, the Internet and highway signs. Also, messages can be sent to cell phones.
   
• Adam Alert: When a child disappears in a public building, such as a department store, all entrances and exits are closed and a description of the child is released so that people inside can look for him. People in the building also make sure that no child matching the description wanders out alone or is taken out of the building by someone.
   
• A Child is Missing program: Not only for use with children, the “reverse 911” call system can also be used to find someone with Alzheimers or other endangered people.

  When a person goes missing, a local police department and the Beaver County Emergency Services Center put together a message with information including a description of the missing person, when and where he was last seen, and any other information that could be important.

  The system can generate 1,000 calls a minute to residents in the area where the person was last seen. Beaver County Detective Lt. Kim Clements said that if the person has been missing for a short time, the calls are placed in about a ¼—mile radius. The longer the person is missing, the wider the call area becomes.

  The system last was used nearly two weeks ago when a man disappeared from a Patterson Township personal care home. A nearby resident spotted the man standing in their back yard and notified police.
   

• Cell phones: Emergency personnel can use cell phones to track a person. If the signal from a missing person’s cell phone is bouncing off of a cell phone tower, rescuers can try to triangulate someone’s location.
   
• Helicopter: A state police helicopter with a thermal-imaging camera can be used to search for people lost in the woods.
   
• Command post: Beaver County Emergency Services Center has a communications bus that’s sent to the scene of searches and used as a command post.
   
• Search dog: The Beaver County sheriff’s department has an animal available.

Source: Beaver County Detective Lt. Kim Clements

 Premise Alert

The Beaver County district attorney’s office is working with the Prevention Project of Beaver County to develop a program called Premise Alert, which identifies people with special needs for local police and emergency workers.

Beaver County District Attorney Anthony Berosh said his office is working with social-service agencies in the county to identify those who might need help during an emergency, such as someone who is autistic or has mental health issues.

For example, Berosh said, in a double homicide several years ago in Freedom, the suspect was deaf. When police arrived, they didn’t know the suspect was deaf and there was a brief confrontation because he wouldn’t respond to police commands.

Berosh and county Detective Lt. Kim Clements said that once information is collected, it will be compiled in a database at the county 911 Center. After that, if someone dials 911 from a certain residence and information comes up on a dispatcher’s screen, such as a person is autistic, that information can be relayed to police and firefighters, who then can respond appropriately.

Berosh and Clements said their office will work with the social-service agencies to decide on how best to collect the information, which would be provided by people voluntarily.

“It’s going to be a great help, no doubt about it,” Berosh said.