The Riley County Police Department wants the public to know about one program they have been using called Project Guardians.
RCPD Director, Dennis Butler, tells KMAN they have been using the program for a while, but not many people know about it. He says the program is a way for families with members that are at risk to be alone outside to register information with RCPD to help in future emergencies.
“If one of their loved ones who has a cognitive condition goes missing, they can call us immediately and we can pull up that information, all of that identifying information and photographs and distribute it to our officers and potentially to the media to help us locate them,” Butler says.
Butler says that the program has been in use, and they actually had a case just last week.
“Last weekend where an autistic young man was not at home where he should be,” Butler says. “And we knew from the form they filled out that he has a fascination with water, so our officers searched the area and before we found him somebody else found him and then called us and we were able to reunite him pretty quickly with his family.”
Butler says the program can be used for young children as well as those with cognitive disorders.
To find out more about Project Guardians visit rileycountypolice.org/guardians.
