Police to use GPS to track dementia patients

Sussex police will use 15 GPS tags on dementia patients who regularly go missing.

11:03 04 May 2013

Sussex police, in their bid to save time and money, will be using GPS devices to track dementia patients who regularly go missing.

With this move, the police force expects to save hundreds of thousand of pounds on helicopters and extra staff. It also hopes to give family peace of mind.

Patients can wear the GPS tag around their neck, attach it to a set of house keys, or clip it to their belt.

The MindMe locators, which cost around £600 in total, will send the exact location of the patient to a website every four minutes as long provided it has mobile signal. It will also allow the patient to talk to the police by simply pressing a button.

It seems that everybody is happy with this technology. Dot Gibson, general secretary of the National Pensioners Convention, said that tagging people with dementia raises very important issues about the individual’s human rights.

He told the BBC: “Rather than tagging people we need better social care out in the community. Dementia patients need human interaction not tagging.”