DeKalb County, Ala., Sheriff Jimmy Harris, left, talks to Paul Saint about the county’s newly-established “Yellow Dot” program on Wednesday during a launch event in Fort Payne.YELLOW DOT SPOTSRegister for the Yellow Dot program at the following locations in DeKalb County:• DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office, 2810 Jordan Road SW, Fort Payne, Ala.• Fort Payne Police Department, 200 Gault Ave. S, Fort Payne, Ala.• Rainsville Police Department, 42 McCurdy Ave. S, Rainsville, Ala.• Collinsville Police Department, 309 Post Office St., Collinsville, Ala.• Community Action Agency of Northeast Alabama offices, 11174 Alabama Highway 75, Ider, Ala.; 1209 Forest Ave. NW, Fort Payne, Ala.; or 70 Coker Drive, Crossville, Ala.Source: DeKalb County Sheriff’s Office
About seven or eight years ago, DeKalb County, Ala., Sheriff Jimmy Harris encountered a South Alabama elderly couple suffering from dementia who got lost after a grocery store trip.
They had become confused as they drove along U.S. Highway 11 and wound up in Collinsville, where they started unloading groceries at a home that wasn’t theirs, according to the sheriff.
The homeowner called the police and sheriff’s department and personnel got the couple’s names from their driver’s licenses, Harris said, but it took more than five hours for officers to find the pair’s family.
DeKalb’s newly implemented Yellow Dot program, launched Wednesday, could have saved time in that instance, and in the future it can help first responders save lives, Harris said.