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STEVE THOMPSONA program called Project Lifesaver uses watch-like transmitters to track lost or wandering participants, often within 30 minutes.
In May, Pasco sheriff's deputies spent 29 hours searching for a missing woman, using helicopters, police dogs, bicycles, all-terrain vehicles and horses.
The elderly Alzheimer's patient's neighbors found her in a shed, a block away from her home in Zephyrhills.
Such stories are not unusual; the Sheriff's Office says it conducts numerous searches every year that take hours or days and cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars.
But sheriff's officials think a new program will help them save some of this money - and save lives. The program, called Project Lifesaver, uses small transmitters worn like wristwatches to track lost or wandering participants.
"We would've found her in no time flat had she been wearing one of these devices," sheriff's spokesman Kevin Doll said of the Zephyrhills woman.
To showcase the program, Doll invited television and newspaper reporters to participate in a mock search Wednesday afternoon.
The "wandering patient" was Dominick DePetrillo, executive director of the Alzheimer's Family Organization in New Port Richey, who wore one of the transmitters on his wrist.
Accompanied by a Times reporter, DePetrillo started from the intersection of State Road 52 and Land O'Lakes Boulevard, an imaginary point where deputies knew him to have "wandered" from.
He hid in his car about 2 miles away in Pasco Trails, then called sheriff's deputies and told them to come looking.
Deputies equipped with locating devices that looked like small rooftop television antennas headed out from the intersection in all directions. A sheriff's helicopter, also equipped with a locator, lifted off from the county jail nearby.
In just under 18 minutes, deputies converged on DePetrillo's hiding place under a tree by the side of the road.
"Superb," DePetrillo said. "The deputies did a great job. This is going to be fantastic for the patients and for the caregivers."
Project Lifesaver was started in Virginia in 1999 and has been used across the country, Doll said. Nearly 900 wanderers have been found to date, most in less than 30 minutes, he said.
The startup cost for the program will be about $14,600, which will come from criminal forfeiture funds, Doll said.
"It hasn't cost the taxpayers anything," he said. "We want to keep it that way so we're looking from funding from other places."
Costs for individuals to participate will be about $390 for the first year, which will include a transmitter, a battery tester, and a year's supply of batteries. The batteries must be replaced by caregivers every 30 days.
"We're looking for groups who would like to sponsor some individuals," Doll said. "We're also looking for participants."
For more information, call the sheriff's Crime Prevention Unit at (727) 834-3376.