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Home / Northern Advocate

Safety tags to track our vulnerable

By Kristin Edge
Reporter·Northern Advocate·
23 Jul, 2012 09:12 PM3 mins to read

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Electronic tags worn as a watch or pendant could help save the lives of vulnerable Northlanders who wander from home and become lost, sparking extensive search and rescue operations.

The Wandatrack tracking system has been developed to trace the movements of people living with dementia, autism, or a brain injury and who tend to wander and are unable to find their way home.

It is a system not too different from that used to track kiwi in the bush.

Now the Northland Land Search and Rescue group want to utilise the technology to find lost people faster, reducing the risk of injury or death, and the stress and anxiety for family members.

It would also reduce the number of people needed to carry out sometimes lengthy searches.

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The programme is being backed by Northland police and public funding is being sought to buy then distribute the system across Northland.

The water resistant pendant emits a pulse specific to that pendant, which is detected using a Radio Tracking Unit and a Directional Finding Aerial. As the tracking unit gets closer to the pendant, the stronger the pulse will be heard.

Whangarei man Chris Browne knows only too well the anxiety caused when loved ones go missing and is backing the introduction of the new technology. His partner Ange, who has Alzheimers, has sparked a number of searches.

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On one occasion she walked over 8km before she was found.

"Anything that helps find a person faster and diminish the anxiety for carers is a good thing. It's the carers who suffer. They get in a hell of a sweat."

Head of Northland police search and rescue squad Senior Sergeant Cliff Metcalfe was sure the system would save lives.

He said by the time police were contacted the lost person could have been on the move for a few hours.

He encouraged people to raise the alarm immediately as trained dogs could track as soon as possible.

"This device will enable us to find people faster and reduce the risk of injury or fatality. It will save lives and money."

A recent search for a 92-year-old man who wandered off from hospital resulted in 40 people searching for him for four hours before he was discovered up a tree, 1.5km away.

Mr Metcalfe said if the man had been wearing a pendant it would have taken two search members about 15 minutes to locate him.

Kerry Sinclair, president of the Far North search and rescue group, said the pendants could be sewn into clothing as well and if that was removed at least there was a starting point.

The programme is not government funded and the group is relying on donations to get the technology and then distribute it to those who need them.

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With funding it hoped two tracking devices would be held by police, one in Kerikeri and the other in Whangarei, with a number of pendants being distributed to individuals and places such as rest homes across Northland.

Each pendant has a unique code and frequency which is logged on the police computer system.



For more information contact the team on northlandwandatrak@hotmail.co.nz

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