KANSAS CITY, MO. -
When a child is missing, there's no question what happens next. An Amber Alert is issued. The alert originates locally, but can be a national call to action, using everything from TV news to electronic traffic signs and billboards to help officers from all across the country bring the child back home.
Now, some wonder if these updates can be used to help others who are in trouble. A so-called Silver Alert would function just like an Amber Alert, only this time the focus would be on seniors suffering from dementia, alzheimer's or some other condition that would cause them to leave home and be unable to get back. Everyone seems to agree Silver Alerts would be a good idea, but giving them the force of law is often more challenging.
Blanche Beaven still enjoys looking back on the day she married her husband John, but in June of 2006, just weeks after their 43rd anniversary and just a week short of his 77th birthday, those plans changed forever.
"He took a walk that Saturday, he seemed to be fine," Beaven says. "He took a walk that day between 4:30 and 5 and he never came home. Then about 6 o'clock, I thought oh my gosh, where is he?"
Blanche says John's doctors didn't believe he had dementia or alzheimer's, but he did have a medical procedure performed the day before, and had been under a full anesthetic. Wednesday evening, a body was found on the banks of the Missouri River. On Thursday, the body was identified as that of John Beaven.
"Of course, I kept thinking, did he call out for me?" she said. "If they could have gotten started (earlier)... because he was 17 miles from home, I was told. Somebody had to see him."
Jim Crenshaw of Lathrop serves on the board of Missouri's 'Silver Haired Legislature,' a statewide agency that lobbies on behalf of the state's seniors. Crenshaw says just like in Amber Alert cases, the first few hours in a senior's disappearance are critical in the effort to bring them home alive.
Unlike a growing number of states, Missouri doesn't have a 'Silver Alert' law in place. Instead, they have an 'Endangered Persons Advisory' that's been on the books since January of 2007. The advisory can be used to track down missing seniors, but it's not used exclusively for the elderly, doesn't allow for the use of roadside electronic signs, and doesn't allow law enforcement to issue and update alerts to a list of agencies that might be on the lookout for the missing person. Crenshaw says that means the current legislation lacks the teeth a true 'Silver Alert' would be able to use.
"The law will put the aggressiveness into where it belongs," he says. "Because the State Highway Patrol's not going to get involved, because they can't. They're not going to put it on the sign, because they can't. You're not going to get any help."
In late March, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed legislation establishing a Silver Alert program for her state. Budget communications establishing the plan show how much more Silver Alerts would be used compared to their amber counterparts. In Kansas alone, 133 people over the age of 65 were reported missing in 2007 and 2008. In that same time span, only five Amber Alerts were issued in the state.
Kansas is setting aside over $111,000,000 in overtime to help the Kansas Bureau of Investigation staff these Silver Alert cases, but with an aging population, there will be likely be progressively more cases that require Silver Alerts, and states that make Silver Alerts the law of the land will eventually need even more money to hire extra case workers, dispatchers, and patrol officers.
"You can't just say to the people working whatever they work at at Amber, 'here, take this on, too,'" Crenshaw says. "You can't do that, you've got to have more reach to make it work."
Besides the financial problem, Crenshaw says Silver Alerts also tread on the dangerous territory of running the risk of profiling those who reach a certain age.
"In some cases, they might welcome you because they are lost," he says. "But you can't go out, and and say 'Are you 65, are you 75, are you 85? You're under watch.' Well, Big Brother doesn't go over good in this country."
Beaven says she knows all too well that not having someone on the lookout is too high of a price to pay. "It's important to me," she says. "The piece of mind came when he was found. But we don't want it that way. We want it the other way, and I think it's very important, and yes, I would do anything I could to support that."
Crenshaw, who lost his own mother to Alzheimer's, agrees. "She didn't track at all on different things, little things," he says. "And it gradually got worse, and she died down here at the nursing home. Didn't know us at all; none of us. So it's a bitter pill for me, this program's needed. And I've seen it first hand."
Crenshaw and the rest of the Silver Haired Legislature will be watching to see how often Missouri's Endangered Person Advisory Program is actually being used to track down missing seniors and bring them home alive. But, Crenshaw says he believes most states will have Silver Alert laws on the books within the next four years. In the meantime, he says children need to have frank discussions with their aging parents about health and independence issues 'before' any warning signs arise.
Now, some wonder if these updates can be used to help others who are in trouble. A so-called Silver Alert would function just like an Amber Alert, only this time the focus would be on seniors suffering from dementia, alzheimer's or some other condition that would cause them to leave home and be unable to get back. Everyone seems to agree Silver Alerts would be a good idea, but giving them the force of law is often more challenging.
Blanche Beaven still enjoys looking back on the day she married her husband John, but in June of 2006, just weeks after their 43rd anniversary and just a week short of his 77th birthday, those plans changed forever.
"He took a walk that Saturday, he seemed to be fine," Beaven says. "He took a walk that day between 4:30 and 5 and he never came home. Then about 6 o'clock, I thought oh my gosh, where is he?"
Blanche says John's doctors didn't believe he had dementia or alzheimer's, but he did have a medical procedure performed the day before, and had been under a full anesthetic. Wednesday evening, a body was found on the banks of the Missouri River. On Thursday, the body was identified as that of John Beaven.
"Of course, I kept thinking, did he call out for me?" she said. "If they could have gotten started (earlier)... because he was 17 miles from home, I was told. Somebody had to see him."
Jim Crenshaw of Lathrop serves on the board of Missouri's 'Silver Haired Legislature,' a statewide agency that lobbies on behalf of the state's seniors. Crenshaw says just like in Amber Alert cases, the first few hours in a senior's disappearance are critical in the effort to bring them home alive.
Unlike a growing number of states, Missouri doesn't have a 'Silver Alert' law in place. Instead, they have an 'Endangered Persons Advisory' that's been on the books since January of 2007. The advisory can be used to track down missing seniors, but it's not used exclusively for the elderly, doesn't allow for the use of roadside electronic signs, and doesn't allow law enforcement to issue and update alerts to a list of agencies that might be on the lookout for the missing person. Crenshaw says that means the current legislation lacks the teeth a true 'Silver Alert' would be able to use.
"The law will put the aggressiveness into where it belongs," he says. "Because the State Highway Patrol's not going to get involved, because they can't. They're not going to put it on the sign, because they can't. You're not going to get any help."
In late March, Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius signed legislation establishing a Silver Alert program for her state. Budget communications establishing the plan show how much more Silver Alerts would be used compared to their amber counterparts. In Kansas alone, 133 people over the age of 65 were reported missing in 2007 and 2008. In that same time span, only five Amber Alerts were issued in the state.
Kansas is setting aside over $111,000,000 in overtime to help the Kansas Bureau of Investigation staff these Silver Alert cases, but with an aging population, there will be likely be progressively more cases that require Silver Alerts, and states that make Silver Alerts the law of the land will eventually need even more money to hire extra case workers, dispatchers, and patrol officers.
"You can't just say to the people working whatever they work at at Amber, 'here, take this on, too,'" Crenshaw says. "You can't do that, you've got to have more reach to make it work."
Besides the financial problem, Crenshaw says Silver Alerts also tread on the dangerous territory of running the risk of profiling those who reach a certain age.
"In some cases, they might welcome you because they are lost," he says. "But you can't go out, and and say 'Are you 65, are you 75, are you 85? You're under watch.' Well, Big Brother doesn't go over good in this country."
Beaven says she knows all too well that not having someone on the lookout is too high of a price to pay. "It's important to me," she says. "The piece of mind came when he was found. But we don't want it that way. We want it the other way, and I think it's very important, and yes, I would do anything I could to support that."
Crenshaw, who lost his own mother to Alzheimer's, agrees. "She didn't track at all on different things, little things," he says. "And it gradually got worse, and she died down here at the nursing home. Didn't know us at all; none of us. So it's a bitter pill for me, this program's needed. And I've seen it first hand."
Crenshaw and the rest of the Silver Haired Legislature will be watching to see how often Missouri's Endangered Person Advisory Program is actually being used to track down missing seniors and bring them home alive. But, Crenshaw says he believes most states will have Silver Alert laws on the books within the next four years. In the meantime, he says children need to have frank discussions with their aging parents about health and independence issues 'before' any warning signs arise.
