State lawmakers pass Senior Alert bill
February 11, 2007 State lawmakers pass Senior Alert bill We've seen the Amber Alert system help locate abducted children, now Virginia could soon start a Senior Alert. By 2020 there will be nearly 1.5 million people 65 or older living in Virginia. To help those with dementia or other memory illnesses, the House and Senate have passed bills creating a Senior Alert. Designed by State Police, it will help mobilize law enforcement officers within two hours once a senior citizen is reported missing. "When an older person wanders off and they become disoriented, you know we can't wait until we check New Jersey and everywhere in the country to see if they might have gone off somewhere," said Delegate Allen Dudley of Rocky Mount. "No matter how good caretaker or the family member is, you can't watch somebody 24 hours a day and these kinds of events can happen and this will trigger an immediate response," said Virginia Attorney General Bob McDonnell. The Senior Alert program would not be imposed on localities automatically. They would have the option to chose whether or not to participate. http://www.wdbj7.com/Global/story.asp?S=6071146

SB 1117 Senior Alert Program; -Bills & Resolutions -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Summary as passed Senate: (all summaries) Senior Alert Program. Creates a program for local, regional, or statewide notification of a missing senior adult. The bill defines a missing senior adult as an adult who is over 60 years of age, suffers from a cognitive impairment which renders him unable to provide care to himself without assistance, and whose whereabouts are unknown and whose disappearance poses a credible threat to his health and safety. The program is similar to the Amber Alert Program for missing children. The bill also provides that no police or sheriff's department shall establish or maintain any policy which requires a waiting period before a missing senior adult report will be accepted. Such departments are also required, within two hours of receiving such a report, to enter identifying and descriptive information about the missing senior adult into the Virginia Criminal Information Network and the National Crime Information Center Systems, forward the information to the Department of State Police, notify other law-enforcement agencies in the areas, and initiate an investigation of the report. Full text: 01/09/07 Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/07 073332105 01/22/07 Senate: Committee substitute printed 070085804-S1 (impact statement) Amendments: House amendments Status: 01/09/07 Senate: Prefiled and ordered printed; offered 01/10/07 073332105 01/09/07 Senate: Referred to Committee for Courts of Justice 01/22/07 Senate: Reported from Courts of Justice with substitute (15-Y 0-N) 01/22/07 Senate: Committee substitute printed 070085804-S1 01/23/07 Senate: Constitutional reading dispensed (40-Y 0-N) 01/23/07 Senate: VOTE: (40-Y 0-N) 01/24/07 Senate: Read second time 01/24/07 Senate: Reading of substitute waived 01/24/07 Senate: Committee substitute agreed to 070085804-S1 01/24/07 Senate: Engrossed by Senate - committee substitute SB1117S1 01/25/07 Senate: Read third time and passed Senate (39-Y 0-N) 01/25/07 Senate: VOTE: (39-Y 0-N) 01/25/07 Senate: Communicated to House 02/06/07 House: Placed on Calendar 02/06/07 House: Read first time 02/06/07 House: Referred to Committee on Militia, Police and Public Safety 02/09/07 House: Reported from Militia, Police and Public Safety with amendments (20-Y 0-N) -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- http://leg1.state.va.us/cgi-bin/legp504.exe?071+sum+SB1117