Bill Text: CA SCR166 | 2015-2016 | Regular Session | Introduced

California Senate Concurrent Resolution 166 (Prior Session Legislation)

Introduced

Bill Title: Silver Alert Community Education Month.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 1)

Status: (Failed) 2016-11-30 - From committee without further action. [SCR166 Detail]

Download: California-2015-SCR166-Introduced.html

BILL NUMBER: SCR 166	INTRODUCED
	BILL TEXT


INTRODUCED BY   Senator Galgiani

                        AUGUST 23, 2016

   Relative to Silver Alert Community Education Month.


	LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


   SCR 166, as introduced, Galgiani. Silver Alert Community Education
Month.
   This measure would proclaim the month of September 2016 as Silver
Alert Community Education Month.
   Fiscal committee: yes.



   WHEREAS, The Silver Alert was signed into California law in 2012
to help in the recovery of missing persons who are 65 years of age
and older; and
   WHEREAS, The Silver Alert is a quick response system designed to
issue and coordinate alerts following the unexplained or suspicious
disappearance of an elderly person with the goal of providing
immediate information to the public about the missing person,
including images or descriptions and the time and location last seen
to speed the process to locate the person and return him or her to
safety; and
   WHEREAS, The Silver Alert was recently amended to include those
persons who have a developmental or mental disability or cognitive
impairment; and
   WHEREAS, There are more than 250,000 people living with
developmental disabilities in California and roughly 1 in 20 adults
suffer from a severe mental illness; many of these individuals are at
great risk of wandering at some point in their lives; and
   WHEREAS, There have been efforts to educate and train those in law
enforcement who come into contact with these individuals on how to
interact and deescalate a situation with the least amount of force,
most recently with the passing of SB 29 and SB 11 in 2015; and
   WHEREAS, There is a growing need to educate people in communities
on the Silver Alert and on how it will help in the safe return of
their loved ones, and how to interact with the individuals should
they come into contact with them; and
   WHEREAS, If more people in the community were aware of the Silver
Alert, it would increase the chances that a missing individual would
be safely located; now, therefore, be it
   Resolved by the Senate of the State of California, the Assembly
thereof concurring, That the Legislature hereby proclaims the month
of September 2016 as Silver Alert Community Education Month, and
urges all state departments and agencies and law enforcement agencies
to work together to promote greater awareness of the Silver Alert
system and to educate communities on how they can help in the safe
return of a missing individual; and be it further
   Resolved, That the Legislature also urges all local law
enforcement agencies to adopt systems like San Diego's "AlertSanDiego"
system, which notifies the public via email and text message when a
person with dementia or other cognitive impairment, or with a
developmental disability, goes missing in the region; and be it
further
   Resolved, That the Secretary of the Senate transmit copies of this
resolution to the author for appropriate distribution.