It is this Monday, January 23 that the SILVER pilot project (Information system to locate vulnerable people who are lost and wanted) comes into effect in three MRCs in Quebec, namely those of Joliette, La Vallée-de-l’ Gold and Drummond.
The pilot project will be in effect for a period of one year and aims to find more quickly people with a major neurocognitive disorder, such as Alzheimer’s disease, who have disappeared.
These alerts, when they meet certain triggering criteria determined by the police force, also target seniors aged 60 and over who show symptoms of a neurocognitive disorder, without necessarily having received a diagnosis.
The pilot project was initially to be launched last September, but an event of force majeure postponed its entry into force, explains Catherine Bernard, spokesperson for the Sûreté du Québec (SQ).
“We are referring to the event of September 2, when an intrusive alert which was initially to be sent within a radius of 50 kilometers in Saint-Elzéar, in Gaspésie, was finally broadcast at the provincial level, explains the sergeant. This alert concerned the presence of an armed and dangerous man wanted by the SQ, and it was decided to postpone the deployment of the pilot project for a few weeks. »
As part of this pilot project, intrusive bilingual alert notifications will be sent by the SQ to all cellular devices located in the specific geographic region where the person will be reported missing.
More detailed information regarding the individual sought will also be available on the social media platforms of the Sûreté du Québec.
According to data provided by the SQ and the Ministry of Public Security, 27 intrusive alerts have been issued since 2015 in the province. Of these, eight were issued in localized areas, including five AMBER alerts, one dangerous animal alert, one dam overflow alert and one test alert in Montreal.
In addition, 19 alerts were issued across Quebec: among these, ten were biannual tests. Three alerts concerned the curfew issued for health reasons and seven alerts were of an AMBER nature, that is to say in connection with the disappearance of a child.
This dispatch was produced with the financial assistance of the Meta Exchange and The Canadian Press for the news.