Creating a Safetynet for Wanderers: Everett Police, Sheriff Partner with LoJack on Personal Safety Device

The City of Everett announced this week that the Everett Police will be joining with Middlesex County Sheriff Peter Koutoujian’s Office to offer local residents an opportunity to take advantage of a new technology that can help keep loved ones with cognitive conditions safe.

The service, SafetyNet by LoJack, will give Everett Police and the Middlesex County Sheriff’s Office, the ability to use radio tracking technology to locate individuals with cognitive impairments who may be prone to wandering away from their homes or other safe environments and becoming lost.

The Everett Police and Middlesex Sheriff Koutoujian are urging the family members and care givers of people with such conditions as Autism, Alzheimer’s and other similar medical issues to register for the program and sign up for a transmitter bracelet that can be worn on the wrist and activated to help find a loved one who has strayed away and become lost.

The program has been used successfully at least twice in Massachusetts in the past 12 months when a 79-year old Marshfield man and a 14-year old Plymouth boy were both found after they’d gone missing in separate incidents.

The City of Everett joins Cambridge and becomes the second community in Middlesex County to partner with LoJack to make this technology available locally to its residents and offer peace of mind to local caregivers of those who are affected by cognitive conditions.

According to a press release provided by SafetyNet, the Middlesex Sheriff’s Office now has eight sets of electronic tracking systems and Safety Net has trained nearly two-dozen officers to use the specialized tracking equipment, to help locate and recover lost individuals.

Sheriff Koutoujian has previously called this system a “win-win-win” for citizens with cognitive conditions, caregivers of those with such conditions and the police who are often called in to help find people who get lost.

“We hope that this service will help increase the safety of our most vulnerable citizens, while also offering peace of mind to their caregivers,” said Sheriff Koutoujian.

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