United States Attorney J. Douglas Overbey of the Eastern District of Tennessee recently announced that $150,000 was awarded in Department of Justice grants to address reducing injury and death of missing individuals with dementia and developmental disabilities in Franklin County.
The program supports local jurisdictions’ efforts to reduce the number of deaths and injuries of individuals with forms of dementia, such as Alzheimer’s disease, or developmental disabilities, such as autism, who, due to their condition, wander from safe environments.
Kevin and Avonte’s Law, enacted in 2018, authorized the Bureau of Justice Assistance to support local efforts to address this public-safety challenge by providing grants to healthcare agencies, law enforcement, public-safety agencies and nonprofit organizations that implement locative technologies to track missing individuals and/or develop or operate programs to prevent wandering, increase individuals’ safety and facilitate rescue.
The Partnership for Franklin County Prevention Coalition and its collaborative partners, the Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services, Coffee County Circuit Courts; the Coffee County District Attorney’s Office; the Manchester Police Department; the Franklin County Senior Citizen Center; the Franklin County Sheriff’s Office; and the Legal Aid of East Tennessee – Erlanger Health Law Partnership will use this grant to fund law enforcement and public-safety agencies to implement and fulfill these goals.
