“I think Oklahoma needs a pat on the back. It will be a quick pat on the back, but I feel I need to highlight the importance of the Silver Alert – the notification system for endangered elderly. … It’s refreshing to see a state that cares enough about the elderly members of their community that they’re willing to utilize an alert system to protect those members. I have always felt as a society that we don’t place enough importance on the protection of our elderly citizens.”

From the news story in the  Lafayette Journal & Courier:

According to a press release from the office of Governor Martinez:

Governor Susana Martinez announced today that she has signed House Bill 131, allowing  the New Mexico Department of Public Safety to issue Silver Alerts to law enforcement, the media, and the  public when seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s or dementia go missing. The governor signed the  legislation at a ceremony at the Alzheimer’s Association’s New Mexico chapter in Albuquerque.

Sponsored by Rep. Paul Pacheco (R-Albuquerque), the legislation creates an Amber Alert-type of protection for New  Mexico’s growing Alzheimer’s population and other senior citizens with degenerative brain diseases or brain injury. It was modeled after the successful Silver Alert program implemented by the City of Albuquerque.

“A statewide Silver Alert program will protect seniors who might not be able to protect themselves,” said  Governor Martinez. “New Mexico seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s and dementia, and their families, deserve to know that law enforcement will be on the lookout should they go missing. As New Mexico’s  population of seniors suffering from Alzheimer’s and other degenerative brain diseases continues to rise, this program is more important now than ever. I’m grateful for Rep. Pacheco’s work to guide this bill through the legislative process and the City of Albuquerque for laying the groundwork for this critical initiative.”

From News Channel 9 in Oklahoma City:

From the news story on KLTV:

From the San Jose Mercury News:

An 82-year-old Sacramento-area man who went missing, prompting the state’s first-ever Silver Alert, has been found.

Authorities tell the Sacramento Bee that Robert Grappi was discovered Wednesday morning after police in Nevada County conducted a vehicle stop.

From the Editorial in the Redding Record-Searchlight:

Beginning Tuesday, California will join dozens of other states in authorizing “Silver Alerts” — broad public announcement to the media, law enforcement agencies and the general public when senior citizens suffering from Alzheimer’s disease or other forms of dementia go missing.

The alerts for seniors in likely distress will piggyback on the existing “Amber Alerts,” which aim to spread the word about abducted children as quickly as possible and thus find them before a kidnapper can take them far. A senior might not be the victim of a crime, but if she is wandering, lost in a mental fog, the risk to her life is very real indeed.

The need is far from hypothetical. Just this week, a Redding couple — he 85 years old, she 83 — were taking what should have been a 10-minute drive across town to a Christmas Eve dinner, but disappeared and were found late the next night stranded and out of gas by the side of Interstate 5 in Woodburn, Ore. That is 400 miles north and most of the way to Portland, yet an Oregon State Police spokesman said the driver thought he was still in California.

Gov. Susana Martinez is looking to apparent state Rep.-elect Paul Pacheco — who faces a required recount of his razor-thin lead over Democratic opponent Marci Blaze — to push legislation that would expand use of statewide missing person alerts for seniors with Alzheimer’s disease.

If approved by the state Legislature, the new alert system would mirror the city of Albuquerque’s “Silver Alert,” which widely distributes information about a missing senior with Alzheimer’s or dementia who wandered away from home and may not be able to find his or her way home.

From Terre Haute Tribune Star:

A Silver Alert was issued today then was canceled after an elderly male reported missing from the Terre Haute area was found safe.

Ronald E. Stevens Sr., 75, has been located in Iowa, according to Vigo County Central Dispatch as of 3:45 p.m. today.

The family of Ronald E. Stevens Sr. reported him missing earlier today. Stevens was last seen Monday at about 2:30 p.m. at a fast-food restaurant on North Third Street in Terre Haute, according to a news release from the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department.

Stevens is a resident of rural West Terre Haute.

Detectives have determined that Stevens’ credit card was used in the last 24 hours in Elkhart in northern Indiana, and again in Cook County, Ill., around 5:30 a.m. today. He was not answering his cell phone.

Family members report that on a prior occasion, Stevens left home confused and was later found in Wisconsin.

When a confused Englewood man asked directions from a Stuart police officer conducting a traffic stop Wednesday, an alert Police Explorer along for the ride quickly determined the 70-year-old had been reported missing in a statewide Silver Alert.

Larry Cubitt, diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, went missing with his car at about 2:30 p.m. but he left behind his identification, cellphone and money, according to Stuart police.

At about 10:30 p.m., Stuart Police Explorer Bryce Rutzke was with Stuart Police Officer David Jacobson when Cubitt pulled up to them, according to a news release.

Cubitt asked how to get to Englewood, but when he couldn’t say whether that was a street or a city, Rutzke alerted Jacobson after noting the man’s confusion and recalled hearing a Silver Alert.