Project Lifesaver is sponsored by the King County Sheriff's Office through the King County Search and Rescue (volunteer) Association.

Each year, volunteer groups along with Sheriff’s Office Search & Rescue personnel respond to numerous incidents involving lost or injured individuals. When a person who has a disease or other ailment that affects memory or judgment wanders from safety, a full-scale search is launched. With the introduction of Project Lifesaver, a search that might have taken days may now be successfully concluded quickly.

Each Project Lifesaver client wears a one-ounce electronic bracelet that emits a unique radio signal 24 hours a day. If the person wanders, a call to 911 by the caregiver triggers a rapid response by a trained team within King County Volunteer Search and Rescue. Under the direction of the Sheriff’s Office, a search is started to locate that client’s unique radio signal as soon as possible.

King County is one of 19 counties in Washington State to join the program, which was started in 1999 in Virginia. Agencies using Project Lifesaver have reduced search time dramatically. Searches that lasted hours and utilized dozens of search and rescue personnel are now accomplished in under an hour by small specialized teams, and fatalities have been reduced significantly.