MONTGOMERY – Governor Kay Ivey has signed into law an expanded version of Alabama’s Missing Senior Alert, now to be known as the Missing and Endangered Person Alert, effective Monday, June 1.
Currently, the Missing Senior Alert may be issued for missing citizens with Alzheimer’s disease or dementia and at risk of bodily harm or death. The newly expanded alert also will include individuals ages 18 and older who have a mental or physical disability and who are at risk of bodily harm or death.
ALEA’s Secretary Hal Taylor said, “In the past, our Alabama Fusion Center has faced the challenge of how to alert the public when a missing individual is too old to meet the criteria for an AMBER or Emergency Missing Child Alert and too young to meet the criteria for a Missing Senior Alert. We appreciate Governor Ivey and the Legislature’s support in working with us to ensure some of the state’s most vulnerable individuals who are reported missing are found as quickly as possible.”
According to Alzheimer’s of Central Alabama, wandering is a danger for 60 percent of those living with Alzheimer’s. The organization recognizes the need to include anyone ages 18 and older who has a mental or physical disability and who is at risk of bodily harm or death in the state’s new Missing and Endangered Person Alert.
The new Missing and Endangered Person alert is one of four alerts administered by the Fusion Center, a unit within ALEA’s State Bureau of Investigation, at the request of law enforcement agencies. The list of alerts also includes:
- AMBER Alert: for a child ages 17 and younger who has been abducted and is believed to be in danger of serious bodily injury or death
- Emergency Missing Child Alert: for a child ages 17 and younger who is missing (not abducted) and believed to be in danger of serious bodily injury or death
- Blue Alert: for a peace officer who is missing, injured or killed and the at-large suspect is believed to be a serious threat to the public
