A year ago, Keith Kennedy, an autistic man from Shoreview, walked away from a Wisconsin summer camp, beginning "a week of utter hell," his mother recalled Wednesday. The 25-year-old eventually was found alive, naked by a creek.
Today, Kennedy is fully recovered, and as of this week, he is among the first in line in Ramsey County to get a radiowave-emitting bracelet that will aid authorities in finding at-risk people who wander.
Sheriff Bob Fletcher announced Wednesday that the county is the latest in a growing number of jurisdictions in Minnesota to join Project Lifesaver, a program that provides the technology to help track vulnerable people.
For $99 in upfront per-person costs, and $30 a month for battery replacements, caregivers applying to the program can secure bracelets for people with autism, Alzheimer's disease, Down syndrome and other cognitive impairments.
Had the program been available a year ago, and Kennedy fitted then with a bracelet, the sheriff's office could have sent deputies with equipment to track him, helping find him sooner and at a cost far less than the estimated $350,000 spent on last year's search, Ramsey County Sheriff's Cmdr. Joe Paget said.
The technology, which is the same as that used to track bears, has been used for 1,960 searches during the past 10 years, with no lives lost, according to Project Lifesaver. The average search takes 30 minutes, authorities say.
Fletcher said that the cost to the sheriff's office would be $3,000 for training and equipment, plus personnel costs that include the addition of a program coordinator who is being paid $16 an hour. The coordinator, Bob Parrott, a community service officer, helped bring the program to New Brighton. He was inspired, he said Wednesday, by his own experiences caring for a father with Alzheimer's who once wandered into a McDonald's restaurant wearing only a hospital gown and robe.
Other jurisdictions that have signed on to Project Lifesaver include Wright County, which began distributing bracelets this year; Scott County, which is taking applications on its website; and Washington County, which plans to advertise the program during its upcoming county fair.
