Baltimore County is aiming to enhance safety for kids with cognitive disabilities. Here's how.
BALTIMORE -- A free program that will help locate people with cognitive disabilities like autism and dementia who may wander is available to Baltimore County residents.
The program is called "Project Lifesaver".
It was a tragic day in the Dundalk community where a six-year-old child with autism died after police found him in a body of water.
"This is terrible. I don't know how that parent feels right now, but I know that's not a good feeling," Ronald Bazley said, a Dundalk resident.
6-year-old Marcel Traore, who was autistic and non-verbal, was reported missing and then later found in the waters of Lynch Cove by police.
The six-year-old died in the hospital. The circumstances surrounding the incident are being investigated, but police say they believe the six-year-old wandered away from his home early in the morning without anyone noticing.
"He had everybody coming together trying to find him," Bazley said.
Project Lifesaver was launched earlier this year by the Baltimore County Police.
The program aims at enhancing the safety of people with memory and cognitive disabilities like autism and dementia.
"The program is set up for reducing search times in the event that they do go missing or they do wander," Erica Dingle, a member of the Baltimore County Police Department said.
Participants in the program wear a device on their ankle or wrist. The device, which operates on radio frequency and is not a GPS tracker, helps officers locate people more efficiently and police say it will reduce the search time.
"It should reduce the search time by half, depending on how far that client has gone, but we have been lucky, Dingle explained. "Since our pilot program we have not had to search any of them."
The service is completely free for Baltimore County residents.
Police are encouraging people to reach out to them to get more information to see what their requirements are, how they can get involved and for additional resources. You can apply for Project Lifesaver by visiting Baltimore County's website here.
