Safety Programs

Do-it-Yourself Home/Business Security Audit

When is the last time you checked around your home or business to make it more difficult to be victimized by a burglary? The Pasco Sheriff's Office encourages citizens to periodically conduct a survey at their home or business to make sure you are doing everything you cantoprevent becoming a victim.

In that effort, the Pasco Sheriff's Office has released a do-it-yourself video that will give citizens tips on reducing the risk of being victimized by a burglary. Citizens are encouraged to review the video and download a home/business security checklist that provides a number of tips on how to improve the safety and security in and around your home or business. Many of the tips are common sense but we encourage citizens to look at the video. Homeowners and renters alike can look at the material from the comfort of their own home, on their own timetable and improve their own security.

The PSO Home/Business Security Audit video can be seen at the Pasco Sheriff's Office official YouTube® website. Click here to view the video.

To download the checklist of the Home/Business Security Audit, click here.

Project Lifesaver
In 2003, the Pasco Sheriff's Office spent nearly 30 hours and thousands of dollars in resources searching for a woman with Alzheimer's disease who had wandered from her Zephyrhills home. Fortunately, she was located in good condition near her home, where she had locked herself in a neighbor's shed and ignored calls from both her family and from searching deputies.

To prevent such incidents from reoccurring, the Pasco Sheriff's Office initiated a new search-and-rescue program, called "Project Lifesaver," that can quickly find wandering Alzheimer's victims and other mentally-impaired individuals. The Pasco Sheriff's Office conducts numerous searches every year for mentally-impaired victims and encourages their caregivers to look into the program.

Project Lifesaver is a proactive program that electronically tracks lost or wandering participants through the use of small transmitters. The Pasco Sheriff's Office is equipped with receivers to track the transmitters, which are usually worn on the wrist like a watch. The PSO is the first in the Tampa Bay region to participate in this program and only the fourth in the state.

Project Lifesaver was established in Virginia in 1999 and has been implemented in law enforcement agencies across the country. The program has safely recovered more than 1,000 wanderers, with an average location time of 22 minutes. Tracking can be conducted by law enforcement personnel from both the air and the ground.

Costs for individuals to participate in the program is $390 for the first year, which includes a transmitter, a battery tester, and a year's supply of batteries. For those caregivers who cannot afford the program's costs, the PSO can provide the equipment for free, which is possible through the generosity of a number of county civic groups who have donated money to help support the program.

For more information about Project Lifesaver or to receive an application, contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office's Project Lifesaver Specialist at 727-277-7146.

Operation Find Me
In August, 2008, the Pasco Sheriff's Office unveiled it's latest program aimed at reducing a terrible statistic in our society. The focus of Operation Find Me is to facilitate the quick release of photos, video and a physical description of a missing or abducted child. The Pasco Sheriff's Office is giving away free "thumb drives," or a portable computer memory storage device. Parents and guardians can put digital photos and video of their children on the thumb drive, and it will also feature a description of the child. If their child becomes lost or abducted, they merely have to give the thumb drive to a Pasco deputy or other law enforcement officer who can then download all the information about their child to a computer. It can then be quickly sent to other law enforcement agencies and to the news media, which can broadcast the photos and description to viewers who may have seen their missing child.

When a child is abducted and murdered, 75 percent are killed in the first three hours after they are taken. That leaves law enforcement with a very small timeframe to begin the search to successfully locate and safely return an abducted child. That is why it is vital for pictures and even video of a missing child to be available and quickly disseminated to other law enforcement agencies and the news media so that the public can be on the lookout for the child and his or her abductor.

Operation Find Me also enables parents to assist the Pasco Sheriff's Office's rapid-response Missing and Abducted Child Team (MAC). This group of specially-trained deputies uses a state-of-the-art vehicle to quickly get to the scene of abduction or where a missing child was last seen. Using the MAC vehicle as a mobile office, the team can use the Operation Find Me thumb drive to forward the photos and video of the child to the Pasco Sheriff's Office website, where the news media and the public can instantly view the information.

Since minutes count in these cases, the quicker we can disseminate the photos and video of a missing or abducted child, the more eyes and ears we can have helping us to ensure their safe return.

For additional information about the program, contact the Pasco Sheriff's Office's School Resource Officer Unit at 813-929-1376.