Wednesday, January 31, 2007

Better protocol needed to find missing persons

Better protocol needed to find missing persons | Home News Tribune Online: "When police located a 73-year-old Alzheimer's patient who had gone missing last Wednesday, the swift and relatively simple rescue might have suggested that the county's new protocols for finding 'at-risk' missing people are working just fine, and maybe they are.

Still, one has to wonder if more needs to be done, especially in the most complex cases involving a child in hiding, for example, or a mentally handicapped person who has wandered off the beaten path. The recent history of such incidents in New Jersey makes it clear that Middlesex County and the state should adopt stronger search-and-rescue guidelines.

The elderly South Brunswick man who was tracked down 3 1/2 miles from his home was on foot and on a main road. But what if he wasn't? It was frigid that night. Suppose he had fallen or was lost in the woods?"

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