The St. Johns County Sheriff’s Office publishes program pages for three services aimed at the same problem, which is a person with a diagnosed condition walking away from the place they were last seen. They are Project Lifesaver, the SAFE Program and the K9 scent kit. None of them can be joined without a diagnosis on file. Only the scent kit page names a cost, and the cost it names is nothing.

Project Lifesaver is the one with a transmitter in it. The agency describes it as a bracelet that, when worn, will identify and assist in the quick recovery of participants suffering from dementia, Alzheimer’s or other special needs. The page lists four criteria, and the first is that the participant must have a full-time caregiver, on the stated ground that no caregiver means a higher risk of death or injury if they get lost.

The conditions the page names are split by age. In the elderly it lists dementia, Alzheimer’s disease, traumatic brain injury, stroke or any number of neurological causes. In children it lists Down syndrome, autism, or traumatic brain injury.

The instructions to the caregiver are the operational part of the program and the page states them plainly. The caregiver is trained to check the transmitter once a day to be sure it is working correctly, and if the person in their care wanders off, the caregiver is instructed to call 911 immediately and not to check the community first. The reason given is that the faster the office is contacted, the closer the person is to where they were last seen. Deputies and other personnel are trained and certified to track, through what the page calls educational and practical components.

Above the application form the page prints a disclaimer in capital letters. It requires a 24/7 caretaker, no access to keys to vehicles, no access to scissors or knives, and residence in St. Johns County.

The scent kit is for the dogs, and it draws a line the other pages do not

The scent kit page says the office is offering free K9 scent kits to qualifying individuals, and that the kits are designed for its bloodhounds to be able to track missing loved ones. It carries a disclaimer of its own, set in bold above the application. The kits are not for runaways. They are for individuals who have been diagnosed with a disability that would impair them from being able to seek help for themselves.

The SAFE Program is a registry, and a state law built it

The third program works differently from the other two, because it does not issue equipment. It issues a sticker and it opens a file.

The Sheriff’s Office describes the SAFE Program as a way to improve communication between county first responders and residents with special needs. On registration, the individual or guardian receives a sticker for the home and for registered vehicles, and the page says the critical information provided is entered into the office’s system. The decals go at a home entry point and on the rear driver’s side window of each listed vehicle.

The page then quotes the law it runs on. CS/HB 1275, known as the Protect Our Loved Ones Act, authorizes a local law enforcement agency to develop and maintain a database, known as a Persons with Disabilities Registry, of persons who may have certain developmental, psychological, or other disabilities or conditions. The enrolled act is chapter 2023-312, Laws of Florida. It created section 402.88 of the Florida Statutes and took effect Jan. 1, 2024.

The statute is permissive throughout. It says an agency may develop and maintain a registry, and subsection (3) says an agency may provide relevant information from a registry to a law enforcement officer engaged in his or her official duties. It does not require any agency in Florida to run one, and it sets no deadline for anything except getting somebody out.

What the statute does require is a set of protections around enrollment, and they are worth reading before a caregiver fills in the form. An adult with a disability may enroll himself or herself. A parent or legal guardian may enroll a minor, or an adult who has been declared incapacitated under chapter 744. An incapacitated adult enrolled by somebody else must be notified in writing of that enrollment, at the address of record, within five business days. A minor enrolled by somebody else must be notified in writing within five business days after turning 18. On a valid verbal or written request for removal, the agency must take the person’s information out of the registry within five business days.

What the form asks for, and where it can go

The Sheriff’s Office enrollment form runs to eight steps, and the progress indicator on the first screen reads Step 1 of 8. It asks for the enrollee’s date of birth, sex, race, developmental age, driver licence or identification number, home and mailing address, and a photograph. It asks for a parent or guardian’s date of birth and driver licence number, for two emergency contacts, for licence plate numbers, and for height, weight, eye colour and distinguishing scars, marks or tattoos.

It then asks the questions that make it a search document rather than an identification document. Known triggers. Calming techniques. Frequently visited places. Whether the subject can swim, and whether they are drawn to water. Whether the individual has a phone, an AirTag or a tracking device. Physical impairments, medical conditions and mental health diagnosis, with confirmation of the disability attached.

A companion bill passed the same session decided what happens to all of that. Chapter 2023-313, Laws of Florida, added subsection (4) to the same statute, and it reads that all records and personal identifying information relating to the enrollment of persons in a persons with disabilities registry held by a local law enforcement agency are confidential and exempt from s. 119.07(1) and s. 24(a), Art. I of the State Constitution. The Legislature made the exemption apply to registries held before, on, or after the effective date.

The exemption is not absolute, and the act lists where the information may travel. On a showing of good cause before a court of competent jurisdiction, or in furtherance of the holding agency’s official duties, it may be disclosed to another local law enforcement agency, a county emergency management agency, a local fire department, or another local, state or federal agency. Those recipients are required to maintain the exempt status of the information.

The Legislature also wrote down why it did this. Its statement of public necessity says that criminals often target individuals who have the same conditions as those enrolled in a persons with disabilities registry in acts of abuse or exploitation, that the records would include personal medical information about the people listed, and that disclosure would deter people from enrolling at all.

Like every public records exemption in this state, this one carries a clock on its face. Subsection (4)(a) states that it is subject to the Open Government Sunset Review Act and stands repealed on Oct. 2, 2028, unless reviewed and saved from repeal through reenactment by the Legislature. That is the next date on this file, and it belongs to the Legislature rather than to the Sheriff’s Office.

Applications for all three programs are on the Sheriff’s Office site at sjso.org, one form per program.

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