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Date: 8/30/2022
SOUTHAMPTON – The Southampton Police Department is inviting members of its community to participate in the new Resident Reassurance Program. The program serves as a daily check-in with the Police Department for registered members of the community, including senior citizens, persons with disabilities, persons that live alone, or persons that face other challenges that put them at increased risk in their homes.
This program, which began on Aug. 16, was created as a result of “countless” unfortunate situations involving elderly persons, one resulting in death, who could not call 911 for help, according to the department.
Police Chief Ian Illingsworth told Reminder Publishing that officers had found people in their homes who could not call for help for hours or days on end and explained that the idea to address these types of situations was adopted from the Resident Reassurance Program in Chatham.
“We wanted to do more, and I reached out; we got a working group to put together to try and come up with a solution,” Illingsworth said.
After months of discussions, TRIAD, the Southampton Council on Aging, and the Board of Health tailored the program to fit the town’s needs and resources. It is an extension of the current Lock Box Program and winter wellness checks the Police Department offers.
To get this program started without fees or expenses, The Polish National Credit Union donated $500 to support 20 lock boxes.
Joan Linnehan, the Council on Aging director, explained how the program works: members call a designated telephone number at the Southampton Police Department daily between 7 a.m. and 12 p.m. and give their names to the police dispatcher. If the member has not called in by 12 p.m., a call is placed to their residence. If no contact is made by telephone, a police officer will be sent to the member’s residence to check their safety. If the responding officer has reason to believe that the reassurance member is home and, for some reason, unable to answer the telephone or come to the door, the police officer will enter the home using a spare key left inside the lockbox.
They are hoping for six to a dozen people to register and are trying to get the word out to people and contacts that feel someone they know could use the program. Linnehan emphasized, “Even if it helps one person, it would be worthwhile.”
For more information, call the Police Department at 527-1120, the Council on Aging at 529-2105 or the Board of Health at 529-1003. Registration forms are available at the Southampton Police Department, 8 East St., or at the Southampton Council on Aging Senior Center, 210 College Hwy.