During the last week of July, the Blue Springs Police Department in Missouri put out a call on social media for assistance in identifying a boy who had been found wandering on his own and who was nonverbal.

That same week, the agency issued a Silver Alert for a missing vulnerable individual. But in that incident, officers pulled up the person’s profile in the Take Me Home program.

Take Me Home is a free, private online database that collects vital information from families about loved ones who may not be able to communicate because they are autistic or have dementia, mental illness or other cognitive or developmental disabilities. Police agencies using the program also have access to these files, which typically contain names, birthdays, height, weight, hair and eye color, an emergency contact and a recent photo. Having these identifiers helps officers more quickly identify and locate vulnerable individuals. The Take Me Home program began in 2019 and is utilized by law enforcement agencies across the country.

Both individuals in Blue Springs were found and reconnected with their families. According to Community Services Bureau Officer Jason Floyd, at least 20 people registered their loved ones with the program after news of the earlier alerts.