Mattie's Call is an American law-enforcement-initiated public notification system to locate missing

elderly Old age refers to ages nearing or surpassing the life expectancy of human beings, and is thus the end of the human life cycle. Terms and euphemisms for people at this age include old people, the elderly (worldwide usage), OAPs (British usage ...

, or otherwise disabled persons.

History

The first version of the Mattie's Call was drafted in 1996. From 1996 to 2009, 127 Mattie's Calls had been triggered. In 2004, radio stations and local law-enforcement agencies in the

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is the seat of Fulton County, the most populous county in Georgia, but its territory falls in both Fulton and DeKalb counties. With a population of 498,715 ...

Georgia Georgia most commonly refers to: * Georgia (country), a country in the Caucasus region of Eurasia * Georgia (U.S. state), a state in the Southeast United States Georgia may also refer to: Places Historical states and entities * Related to the ...

, area broadcast information about the elderly Mattie Moore missing from her home. Moore, a 67-year-old woman who had been diagnosed with

Alzheimer's disease Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegeneration, neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in short-term me ...

, wandered away from her Atlanta home in April 2004 and was found dead 8 months later in a wood a few hundred meters from her home. Mattie's Call was created by an act of the

Georgia General Assembly The Georgia General Assembly is the state legislature of the U.S. state of Georgia. It is bicameral, consisting of the Senate and the House of Representatives. Each of the General Assembly's 236 members serve two-year terms and are directly ...

in 2006. It is named after Mattie Moore.

Description

Mattie's Call was patterned after the

AMBER Alert An Amber Alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert ( SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated i ...

system created to locate missing, or abducted children. It uses public-service announcements on radio stations, displays on publicly controlled signaling devices and transmissions to law-enforcement agencies in an attempt to locate the missing endangered person.georgia.gov - Activation Criteria
Mattie's Call is an example of a

Silver Alert 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 locating th ...

system to locate missing senior citizens.

References

{{reflist

External links

Official website
Alzheimer's disease Government of Atlanta Emergency communication Emergency services in the United States Georgia (U.S. state) law Public service announcement organizations Public service announcements of the United States Missing people organizations United States elder law

History

Description

See also

Further reading

References

External links