Senate Considers ‘Silver Alert’ System To Seek Missing Adults

Wisconsin’s Senate is considering a bill to create a statewide alert system for missing at-risk adults.

The legislation creates a ‘Silver Alert’ notification program, which the bill’s sponsors say will provide a safety system for vulnerable adults.

Among its supporters are Claire Baeb and her family, who experienced the need for the alert firsthand. During a trip last year, she and her husband went missing for about two days. Baeb had previously been diagnosed with early signs of Alzheimer’s disease.

“I believe my brain malfunctioned for a while,” she said. “I really wasn’t knowing what I was doing, what I was thinking.”

Baeb says she’s thankful for the possible alert system, saying it would help people so they wouldn’t have to experience what she went through.

Baeb’s husband, Leo, died shortly after they were found. One of their daughters, Diane Smith, says the creation of a notification system for at-risk adults would provide help instead of heartache.

“Silver Alert would honor my Dad’s memory and bring peace,” Smith said: “Peace in knowing that people would be found and their lives would be saved.”

Rep. Ken Skowronski, R-Franklin, is one of the bill’s sponsors. He says the alert system would be similar to the success of the Amber Alert system.

“The Silver Alert would be broadcast when an adult at risk, when the afflicted is lost and in danger,” Skowronski said. “The hope is that an alert would aid the authorities in finding the lost person as soon as possible.”

The legislation requires the state’s Department of Justice to work with dementia groups, among others, to create guidelines for when an alert is issued through the DOJ’s existing Crime Alert Network. Currently, alerts only go out to those who pay a subscription fee. But the bill makes the service free, which one of the legislation’s sponsors says will make the system more successful.

The Assembly passed the bill unanimously last month. It’s currently under the consideration of the Senate’s Committee on Judiciary and Labor. Around 30 other states have a similar program.