Senator John A. DeFrancisco (R-I-C Syracuse) announced that the New York State Senate today passed his “Gold Alert” bill (S3293B) to assist in locating vulnerable missing adults.
 
If signed into law by Governor Andrew Cuomo, the bill would use the “Amber Alert” infrastructure, which is already in place, to disseminate information about missing vulnerable adults through a statewide system, using a variety of resources, including television and radio stations, posters, highway message signs, New York State Thruway Authority services areas, e-mail alerts, and the Internet, in hopes of engaging the public in finding leads to locate the missing individual.   
 
"In 2007 an elderly Syracuse woman who suffered from Alzheimer’s disease left her home in the middle of the night and traveled all the way to her former home in New Haven, Connecticut,” said Senator DeFrancisco.
 
“Authorities weren’t alerted that the woman was missing until after she discovered someone else living in her former home. This incident and several others like it demonstrate the need for an alert system to assist in the search for missing vulnerable adults.”
 
“The ‘Amber Alert’ system has been a great resource to help law enforcement locate missing children, and I believe that the Gold Alert system would be a very useful tool as well.”
 
The bill has passed the Assembly.