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Complaints follow Code Red calls

By JONATHAN ABEL
Published January 18, 2007

SPRING HILL - The phones started ringing at 9:47 p.m. - 33,563 of them in all.

It was the Sheriff's Office on the line, telling people to be on the lookout for a man with Alzheimer's who had wandered away from home.

Another round of calls began at 10:18 p.m. Friday. The final round started at 8:14 a.m.

Not everyone answered when the Hernando Sheriff's Office called, but each round of calls made contact with about 23,000 homes.

The calls were part of a reverse 911 system called Code Red, used not only by the Sheriff's Office but also by the fire, utilities and emergency management departments.

It's a way for authorities to reach out quickly to the public - to get help and give information - but it has also caused some people to complain to the Sheriff's Office that the calls came too late in the evening.

The Sheriff's Office is looking into its policies on administering Code Red, specifically the question of whether residents can opt out of it.

But Sheriff's Office officials point out that the calls were effective: the man was found and returned home safely.

The drama was put in motion about 7:15 p.m. when a woman called the Sheriff's Office to report her 72-year-old husband missing.

The man suffers from advanced Alzheimer's and had no sense of direction.

He wandered out of his house in the Silverthorn community and disappeared through the complex's Mallard Lake exit toward Powell Road just after 6 p.m.

By the time deputies got the call, too much time had elapsed to find him with search dogs. The Sheriff's Office helicopter couldn't find him either.

So deputies fanned out to look for him, and the patrol commander decided to activate Code Red, which called all the phone numbers in a 5-mile radius.

The first call that went out gave a description of the missing man. The second call revised it with more details. The third call, on Saturday morning, told everyone that the man had been found.

The system was a success, said sheriff's spokeswoman Donna Black.

James and Justin Berleth, a father and son, heard about the missing man in their neighborhood and went out to look for him.

Around 1:30 a.m., they came across him lying on his back, his arms folded across his chest, in the midst of a construction site off Barclay Avenue near Spring Hill Drive.

The two searchers called the Sheriff's Office, and deputies returned the man to his home unharmed.

But because some of the calls came so late, a number of people complained to the Sheriff's Office.

At the moment, it's not possible to opt out of the Code Red system, but the Sheriff's Office is investigating if that may be feasible for some residents.

Still, authorities emphasized the importance of the system, despite the fact that some people felt inconvenienced.

"It's left for very serious calls because we don't want to abuse it," Black said.

"We want people to take it seriously when we do call. That's why in 2006 there were just five times we used the system."

Jonathan Abel can be reached at jabel@sptimes.com or 352 754-6114.

[Last modified January 17, 2007, 21:32:49]