Posted on Friday April 12, 2024
Thanks to the York Regional Police Air Support Unit and Search and Rescue Unit, a 69-year-old man missing from the City of Markham was safely located using Project Lifesaver equipment.
On Wednesday, April 10, 2024, officers in Air2, working with Search and Rescue and frontline officers on the ground, obtained a Project Lifesaver signal 1000 feet up in the air from the missing man’s wristband tracker amongst a pack of motor vehicles in the area of McCowan Road and Finch Avenue in Toronto.
They were able to narrow the signal down to a Toronto Transit Commission bus, where the man was located by officers who stopped to check the bus.
Project Lifesaver is a program designed to assist police in protecting and locating some of our most vulnerable citizens if they become lost. It is a reliable, rapid-response system that assists in locating people who are vulnerable as a result of a brain injury, Alzheimer’s disease, Autism or other health related conditions.
Those who are a part of the Project Lifesaver program wear a personalized wristband that emits a tracking signal. When caregivers notify York Regional Police that the person is missing, a Search and Rescue Unit team responds to the area where the lost person was last seen and searches the area with a mobile location tracking system. The Project Lifesaver wristband is a one-ounce, battery-operated wrist transmitter emitting an FM radio frequency-based signal that emits a signal every second, 24 hours a day.
Video of Project Lifesaver being used in this search can be viewed here: https://youtu.be/vtzcYk3OSpw
For more information on Project Lifesaver contact York Regional Police Community Services at 1-866-876-5423 x6668 or visit https://www.yrp.ca/projectlifesaver
Prepared by: Constable James Dickson
April 12, 2023
