Silver Alert

What is a Silver Alert?

A Silver Alert is activated when an elderly, developmentally, or cognitively-impaired person has gone missing and is determined to be at-risk. Silver Alerts provide immediate information to the public to aid in the swift recovery of at-risk persons meeting the criteria.

Silver Alert Criteria

In order for the California Silver Alert Plan to be activated, law enforcement must be satisfied the following criteria must be met (Government Code section 8594.10):

The missing person is 65 years of age or older, developmentally disabled or cognitively impaired.
The investigating law enforcement agency has utilized all available local resources.
The law enforcement agency determines that the person has gone missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.
The law enforcement agency believes that the person is in danger because of age, health, mental or physical disability, environment or weather conditions, the person is in the company of a potentially dangerous person, or other factors indicating that the person may be in peril.
There is information available that, if disseminated to the public, could assist in the safe recovery of the missing person.

What Should the Public Do?

If you locate a person who has been identified as missing, call 911 immediately to report their location. Be sure to make note of their location, direction of travel, and make, model, color, and license plate number (if possible) of any vehicle involved.