Safe Return Police Training

The Alzheimer’s Association supports passage of House Bill 1360 to train law enforcement personnel in interacting with people who have Alzheimer’s disease or a related dementia, particularly in locating and safely returning individuals who wander away from home or a professional care facility.

Background:

Wandering is a common and potentially dangerous behavior associated with Alzheimer’s disease. Roughly 70% of Virginia’s 100,000 people with Alzheimer’s wander away from their home setting and become lost. Frequently, the law enforcement or emergency services personnel who first locate the wandering Alzheimer’s individual may be unfamiliar with the disease, wandering, or even how to distinguish someone disoriented by Alzheimer’s from someone who is under the influence of alcohol or drugs or who may be psychologically disturbed. Law enforcement and emergency services personnel want and need training to help them both properly recognize Alzheimer’s individuals who have wandered and appropriately return the wandering person to the family or professional care facility. For example, officers need to look for the Safe Return ID bracelet many Alzheimer’s individuals wear which registers people, who tend to wander, in a nationwide database accessible to over 17,000 law enforcement agencies.

Over 97% of people registered with Safe Return are located, compared to only 57% of non-registered people. In addition to dramatically improving the rate of success, properly trained personnel would save time and resources by avoiding unnecessary arrests and processing which would allow police to spend more time on patrol. The training would also promote more timely and dignified recovery of wandering individuals which, in turn, lowers the rate of medical intervention needed to treat effects of prolonged exposure to the elements, malnutrition and possible injury.

For more information, please read the 1998 Legislative Updates page.