Partnership gets missing people home

The Chula Vista Police Department has partnered with the San Diego County Sheriff’s Department to bring non-communicative individuals with disabilities home through a photo recognition program.

The “Take Me Home” program is a photo and web-based information system designed to assist law enforcement during contacts with developmentally disabled individuals with Alzheimer’s, Dementia, Autism, Deafness, Down Syndrome and other developmental disabilities. The program is to help identify and locate the family of an individual who tends to wander and who may not be able to communicate with local authorities.

The San Diego County Sheriff’s Department created the system but the Chula Vista Police Department has joined them in accessing an individual’s photograph and information through the database.

“That way when our officers come into contact with somebody in the field that appears to be lost or confused – which happens more often than not- they can use that program to find out who the responsible person is and get them back to where they need to be,” said Lt. Henry Martin.

A link to register an individual with the program is on the police department’s webpage at www.chulavistaca.gov/departments/police-department. The page asks for the individual’s biographical information, medical information and emergency contact. It also requires uploading a passport quality photograph of the individual with a disability.

Officers can access the database through their department issued cell phones or tablets that have the photo recognition software, Martin said.  Martin said all an officer has to do is take a photo of the lost individual, and if person is registered in the system, all of their information will come up, including their home address.

“If we happen to find somebody who is dazed or confused or they are not communicating because they are Autistic, we can have somebody come over right away and snap a picture of them and it should tell us instantaneously who they are and where they are living at,” he said.

Martin said the new system makes things easier for the police department.

He said up until now when officers ran into someone who wondered the streets and could not communicate well, the department would wait until someone called police and reported that person missing. Other than that the department did not have a way to find where the person lives.

Officers would then take a photo of the individual and restore their history in a Missing Person’s Notebook for future reference.

Martin said with this information now digital, it makes it easier and faster to return home.

“The sooner we can get them back to their loved ones the better it is for everyone,” Martin said.