Emergency services: seniors.

Existing law authorizes use of the federally designated Emergency Alert System to inform the public of local, state, and national emergencies. This bill would require, on or before January 1, 2011, the Department of the California Highway Patrol, in consultation with the Department of Justice, the California Emergency Management Agency, the California State Emergency Communications Committee, the California Broadcasters Association, the California Peace Officers' Association, the California Police Chiefs Association, and the California State Sheriffs' Association, to develop policies and procedures providing instruction to law enforcement agencies, other intermediate emergency agencies, participating radio and television broadcasters, and other media outlets on the implementation of a missing senior person alert. The bill would require the Department of the California Highway Patrol to incorporate appropriate alert measures in developing these policies and procedures. The bill would also require a law enforcement agency, if that agency receives a report of a missing senior person, and if the agency determines that the senior person has an impaired mental condition and that there is information available that, if disseminated locally to the general public, could assist in the safe recovery of the senior person, to immediately implement, absent extenuating investigative needs, the policies and procedures developed by the Department of the California Highway Patrol for the implementation of a missing senior person alert to the maximum extent feasible. The bill would require the law enforcement agency, if the department has not yet developed those policies and procedures, to immediately undertake specified or other appropriate alert measures to locally disseminate the information that could assist in the safe recovery of the missing senior person. By imposing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would authorize a law enforcement agency, if the agency determines that the senior person may be in a vehicle or has been missing for over 24 hours, to request that the Department of the California Highway Patrol activate the Emergency Alert System within the appropriate local or regional area to disseminate the information that could assist in the safe recovery of the senior person. The bill would also authorize the department to activate the Emergency Alert System if it determines that activation is appropriate based on the available information about the missing senior person. The bill would require the law enforcement agency that initiates the missing senior person alert to inform the general public within the appropriate local or regional area of the termination of the missing senior person alert upon the location of the missing senior person. By imposing an additional duty on local law enforcement agencies, the bill would create a state-mandated local program. The bill would provide that the above provisions become operative upon the state's receipt of federal funding for the purpose of implementing a missing senior person alert system, as certified to by the Department of the Highway Patrol. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to these statutory provisions.