Silver Alerts have been used for some time in Florida, and they are very effective. We get them all, and there are sometimes three or four at a time issued across the state. We’re are just lucky that they are rare in Escambia and Santa Rosa counties.

Anyone can sign up for the alerts:

http://www.floridasilveralert.com/

A Silver Alert is a public notification system in the United States to broadcast information about missing persons – especially senior citizens with Alzheimer’s disease, dementia or other mental disabilities – in order to aid in their recovery. To

Silver Alerts use a wide array of media outlets – such as commercial radio stations, television stations, and cable television – to broadcast information about missing persons. Silver Alerts also use variable-message signs on roadways to alert motorists to be on the lookout for missing seniors. In cases in which a missing person is believed to be missing on foot, Silver Alerts have used Reverse 911 or other emergency notification systems to notify nearby residents of the neighborhood surrounding the missing person’s last known location.

Supporters of Silver Alert point to U.S.’s growing elderly population as a reason to support new programs to locate missing seniors. Approximately six in ten dementia
victims will wander at least once, health-care statistics show, and the numbers are growing worldwide, fueled primarily by Alzheimer’s disease.[1] If not found within 24 hours, up to half of wandering seniors with dementia suffer serious injury or death.[2]

http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Alert