Inslee signs measure creating 'Silver Alert' system in state for missing, vulnerable older adults

OLYMPIA (AP) — Gov. Jay Inslee on Wednesday signed a measure that creates a new alert for highway signs and traffic advisories when older adults who may be suffering from Alzheimer's, dementia or developmental disabilities go missing.

The bill creates a "Silver Alert" that will use Washington state's current missing person alert system that activates electronic highway signs and radio traffic advisories, the News Tribune of Tacoma reports (http://bit.ly/1MJVyN1 ). It will be aimed at locating adults age 60 and older.

The new program won't activate the federally managed Emergency Alert System that interrupts television and regular radio broadcasts because the state doesn't have permission from the Federal Communications Commission to use the federal emergency system for that purpose.

According to the Alzheimer's Foundation of America, more than 40 other states already have a Silver Alert system that specifically applies to older adults.

"Right now in Washington there are 200,000 elders suffering from dementia or developmental disability," said state Rep. Sherry Appleton, D-Poulsbo, the sponsor of the bill. "Most of them, at one point or another, will wander. These are our parents and grandparents, the people who raised us and protected us. We owe it to them to take this step that 41 states already have taken.”

As he signed Appleton’s bill into law, Inslee said, “There is no national Silver Alert system, but states that have a Silver Alert system have found that the alerts help recover missing elders faster by quickly advising the public to be on the lookout as they would for a child under an AMBER alert."

Critics of Silver Alert have raised concerns that the proliferation of color-coded alerts will reduce their importance. For example, Texas has created an Amber Alert, Silver Alert and Blue Alert (issued to locate an assailant in the event a law enforcement officer is killed or injured.)