News Summary

A recent revision to an Ohio Senate bill has authorized an alert program meant to aid missing adults in the same way the Amber Alert has aided the recovery of abducted children.

Rather than establishing and maintaining a new program for adults, state lawmakers have chosen to integrate the bill's requirements into the existing emergency alert program.

The Missing Adult Alert system, which went into effect Friday, June 20, will expedite the identification and location of missing adults 65 years old or older and adults with mental impairments.

"(It) provides resources and coordination between ... government agencies, law enforcement, media, and ... the public," said Mark Patchen, Technical Support Division Director of the Ohio Emergency Management Agency, a division of the Ohio Department of Public Safety.  

It will operate the same as the Amber Alert, a statewide emergency alert program that has for more than five years drawn upon the resources of law enforcement and media to notify the public when a child has gone missing.

While recognizing the need for the program Clark County Sheriff Gene Kelly said the statewide Adult-Alert program will only serve to expand his office's existing policy. He said his office already takes into account whether a missing person requires medication or suffers from dimentia and other factors.

"(Adults) can get in a vehicle and on public transportation and get very far from home very quickly" Kelly said. "With the Amber Alert, the effort is statewide. And we need to do that, because we're such a mobile society."

Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0367 or ecavallaro@coxohio.com.