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Dyer Fire Department launches 'Project Lifesaver' to help locate missing residents

DYER, Ind. - The Dyer, Indiana Fire Department is unveiling a program aimed at bringing individuals who are prone to wandering from home back to safety. The program itself is decades-old, but it's new to Dyer and can save lives. What we know The program is called "Project Lifesaver" and will provide local families with an added level of security and comfort. Officials in Dyer decided to implement it after several recent cases of vulnerable community members wandering off. The program is designed for individuals of all ages with cognitive conditions or disabilities — like dementia, Alzheimer's, or autism — who are prone to wandering away from home. "Project Lifesaver" was founded in 1998 in Virginia and has since expanded to hundreds of cities. Individuals who meet the criteria are fitted with a radio transmitter that stays on at all times. What they're saying In the event that an individual wearing one leaves home, the fire department is trained to use a receiver that accurately pinpoints their location. "It's an old FM frequency that allows us to actually transmit. It's almost kind of like a ham radio operator, so it bounces off these different frequencies, and it allows us to find a very small diode that's inside the transmitter on somebody's wrist or their ankle," said Dyer Chief Joe Martin. "We'll go out with the receiver, and we have the ability on the fire apparatus with a mobile antenna to start driving around and start getting a better definitive area and location. Past that, we can detach that antenna, and then we can attach it to the receiver by hand and toss the antennas out on the Yagi antenna. And now we just go off on foot." What's next A handful of agencies downstate utilize the program, but according to Project Lifesaver's website, Dyer will now be the closest town to Chicago to implement the "Project Lifesaver." The department currently has the capacity to fit six people with a bracelet. Each transmitter costs $300, but through donations, the fire department will be providing all bracelets to community members free of charge. The Source FOX 32's Kasey Chronis reported on this story.