Novel ideas help find those who wander, even if missing under rubble
by Michelle Perin
Brad Deichler’s son was eight years old when he popped the screen out of the back window and disappeared. A small child, this wasn’t the first time he had eloped. An officer with Kansas City (Missouri) Police Department, Deichler had searched for his son numerous times before. “One time he ran two and a half miles,” Deichler says. “He can run very fast even though he’s small.” At the time Deichler was working at a police station just a few miles from his house. “He was running to come see me. We found him about a quarter of a mile from the station. This was in less than 15 minutes.”
Deichler also admits his son can fly. “I had to get him out of a tree a couple years ago,” he says. “The fire department had to bring up a ladder because he was so far up. He was like a monkey.”
Even with a 10-foot privacy fence in the backyard, Deichler’s son was once again gone. Autistic and virtually non-verbal, he could not care for himself and could not ask for help. “Usually we find him pretty quickly, but on this particular day we didn’t,” Deichler says remembering the incident five years ago. Fortunately, the family had a tracking device. “After about 20 minutes, I popped up the Care Trak and started to search,” he says.
“Tried and True”
Manufacturing wildlife tracking technology since 1970, Care Trak was approached to create something for people in 1986. “Law enforcement approached us asking us to develop something for people at risk,” says Mike Chylewski, vice president, Care Trak International Inc. “The same technology we use for locating animals, we decided to register with the FCC and put a smaller signal on people.” Currently, around 1,000 law enforcement agencies throughout the U.S. use Care Trak products, including Naperville (Illinois) PD—calling the system “tried and true.”
The Care Trak device consists of a nylon band containing a small, water-resistant radio frequency (RF) transmitter that emits a signal every second. It’s worn on the wrist or ankle, snapping on so it cannot be removed by the wearer. Each transmitter has a unique radio frequency. Paired with a handheld directional antennae attached to a receiver, the system uses highly accurate telemetry to track a person to within inches. It works through buildings and in water. To top it all, it’s inexpensive.
The people
“It started off with Alzheimer’s but has developed,” Sergeant Brad Marsh says of Naperville’s tracking program. Titled after the original company, the Fastrack Program began January 2006. “Most participants we have (now) are children with autism. It’s a growing group.” A group with Alzheimer’s, dementia, autism, and Down syndrome.
“There are a lot of departments spending enormous amounts of time and money looking for people,” Marsh says. “The average cost is $1,500 per hour and that’s not including aircraft.” Another problem is that agencies cannot financially plan for these types of events. “Since you never know when a wandering incident is going to occur, you can’t budget for it,” Chylewski says. “You can’t say, ‘So, we’re going to have two wanderers this year.’” Care Trak helps removes this financial uncertainty.
Saving money for law enforcement is not Care Trak’s only financial goal. In fact, their company philosophy addresses cost for the end-user. “Expense is an issue because senior citizens are on a fixed income and parents with special needs kids are always broke,” Chylewski says. “They take extra therapy, education, diet, bedding and all kinds of things so as a result the household is generally not well-off. Our company philosophy is to make the equipment as inexpensive as possible and more important, to make the monthly charge to maintain very inexpensive.” At $3.49 per month, they’ve accomplished this. To make it even more affordable, many departments, like Naperville, cover the cost of the equipment. “It’s low tech and highly accurate,” says Chylewski. “It’s much more effective and accurate than anything in the market today and much less expensive.” Naperville PD advertises the device and the program as, “Reliable, responsive, practical and affordable.”
Technology and relationships
“I cannot imagine what it is like to have a child that will just bolt on you and not be able to filter out any danger, such as streets and cars,” says Deb Hanson, Crime Prevention Specialist and Fastrack Coordinator, Naperville PD. “Most of them are non-verbal so even if a Good Samaritan stops to help them they can’t communicate how to get home.” Hanson visits participants every two months to change the batteries. “They’re used to seeing me,” she says. “For those that have a fear of the uniform (common in the autistic population), this helps ease that, which can be very beneficial when we go into a search process.”
Fortunately, only a small percentage ever need a search. “Part of their enrollment requires their picture loaded into our database. When a caregiver calls and says, ‘My son/daughter/senior has wandered’ and they’re on the Fastrack program, that picture is pushed out to all of patrol,” says Hanson. “A missing person goes to the top of the list in priority. Patrol will find them before we have to go out and look. So far in the ten years (we’ve had the program), we’ve been blessed in not having lost anyone in a pond where they have drowned.”
What about new technology?
Considering RF technology has been around for decades and new technology pops up every day, is there something better? “There are programs out there but the detriment is that (the device) can be removed and it has to be charged almost daily,” says Hanson. “The child thinks it can be off. It’s not any good if they aren’t wearing it.” Regardless, Naperville PD wasn’t satisfied with calling off the search for new technology.
Meet LoRa
The LoRa Alliance is an open, non-profit association believing the Internet of Things (IoT) era is not futuristic, but now. Its mission is to standardize Low Power Wide Area Networks (LPWAN) and deploy them around the world to enable IoT, machine-to-machine (M2M), smart city, and industrial applications. They are driving the LoRaWAN protocol. Society is full of wireless, battery operated things like tracking devices. The goal of LoRa is interoperability in one open global standard and the ability to run them all in long range, low power and with low cost infrastructure. What Naperville PD found in this high tech world was a California-based company interested in a tracking device pilot project.
“LoRa technology revolves around the 900 MHz RF technology platform,” says Larry Liang, COO, USGlobalSat Inc. “Our proprietary pilot will revolve around GPS and LoRa technology.” LoRa works by placing gateways around the area. The number of gateways depends on a variety of factors in the environment. “It’s being set into an existing telemetry platform,” says Liang. “We do not have a conceptual design. It’s all proprietary until we have a trademark.” In a user-friendly interface, each tracked person would be an icon on the computer screen monitored by dispatch.
“If a senior historically breaks out of his home and goes to the same park and the same bench,” Liang says, “we can set up geo-fences based on logic and pattern.”
USGlobalSat Inc. is invested in the new technology. “They are willing to help underwrite it because we’re sort of a test,” says Hanson. “It will have a main hub in the 911 center. As long as our Internet is up we would be able to see in real time where our participants are. That’s what we’re hoping to put into play by summer or fall.” Currently they are testing to see if their Internet is compatible. Once that’s determined, USGlobalSat Inc. will develop the device. Liang says Naperville already has GPS LoRa and battery-based hardware that can physically do what Hanson wants. It’s just not in the form that she wants. The LoRa technology also has great battery life. “We can be looking at the rechargeable lasting 6 to 18 months,” Liang says.
Another international sensation
While the previously discussed technologies can help quickly locate missing people wearing their devices, what about finding people not expecting to be missing? Like those trapped under piles of rubble. Fortunately, there’s technology for that as well. Finding Individuals for Disaster and Emergency Response (FINDER) made its debut with the DHS Science & Technology Lab in collaboration with NASA. FINDER utilizes radar technology to detect vital signs through twisted, shattered material. In the last two years, FINDER has been in the test phase in Urban Search & Rescue scenarios in Virginia, Oklahoma, Indiana, New Jersey, Georgia, California, and Illinois. In one assessment conducted by Virginia Task Force 1, FINDER successfully located a “victim” buried in 30 feet of mixed concrete, rebar and gravel rubble from a distance of 30 feet. A locator function pinpoints victims to within five feet. Mid-2015, DHS & NASA transitioned the final prototype of FINDER to the commercial market, identifying two commercial partners licensed to manufacture it: R4 Inc. and SpecOps-Group Inc.
FINDER had its first real-world test in Nepal after the April 2015 earthquake. An R4 Inc. prototype successfully detected two heartbeats in two different collapsed structures saving two men in Chautara. “The whole idea around FINDER was to find heartbeat and respiration in a disaster such as a tsunami, tornado or avalanche,” says Adrian Garulay, President/CEO, SpecOps-Group Inc. “When a house comes down you don’t know if there is anyone alive in the thing. Within 30 seconds (FINDER) can detect if there is a heartbeat.” The size of a small suitcase, FINDER is portable, which is important for air travel. It’s also easy enough to be used by a single first responder. “It’s small and compact,” says Garulay. “It’s not man-intensive. It’s less maintenance. This will be a faster process.” It also comes in a drone version. “It’s been tested by the US Army and US Customs and Border Patrol. It’s being tested by the FBI in two weeks. FEMA will be getting it in 2016,” he says. Garulay has been asked by five sheriff departments to demo FINDER in January. Retailing at $25,000 to $30,000, FINDER is not a small ticket item, but the company does want to work with agencies.
An added bonus to FINDER—it shows promise as an asset in locating dangerous people, too. In November 2015, DHS facilitated a mock terrorist attack at Brigham Young University (Utah) including 130 different law enforcement agencies. FINDER successfully found people behind walls and in the building. In the future, this technology could be used by special operations nationally and locally.
Remember KCPD Captain Deichler and his missing autistic son? Due to Care Trak, this story has a happy ending. Using the device, Deichler zeroed in on his son’s location only four or five doors down from where they live. Many of his neighbors are firefighters and law enforcement officers. Deichler found his son’s Sponge Bob discarded in the backyard of an FBI agent. The officer wasn’t there but Deichler’s son had made himself comfortable. “We looked inside the front window and he was sitting in his underwear on this guy’s couch,” Deichler recalls. “He had his T.V. on and was eating out of a box of cereal. So, we went in and got him. When this guy got home we told him by the way our kid was in your house and ate your cereal. It was all very comedic.” Thankfully Deichler’s tale turned into a funny memory.
Since then, Deichler has been the driving force behind KCPD adopting the technology. “We have a very elaborate search and rescue now,” Deichler states. “It all kind of spawned off the stuff with my son. We use the Care Trak here. I’ve had it for six years. KCPD has had it for about 15 months.” All of these products, even the new and innovative ones yet to come, are about one thing: saving lives. That’s always a good thing. ■
Michelle Perin has been a freelance writer since 2000. In December 2010, she earned her Master’s degree in Criminology and Criminal Justice from Indiana State University.
