East Lyme has become the 55th Connecticut community to launch a local chapter of TRIAD, a national coalition that aims to reduce criminal victimization of the elderly.
The program brings together law enforcement, community senior services, and the private sector to work on ways that help aging Americans stay on their toes and avoid falling for increasingly common scams aimed at them. Under the TRIAD banner, communities may survey town residents to see what is needed, set up health and safety programs, and carry out other activities under the guidance of a volunteer board of directors, called a SALT Council, for Seniors and Law Enforcers working Together.
On Nov. 7, representatives of the East Lyme Police Department, East Lyme Senior Services, and People’s United Bank, the business sponsor of the program in
Connecticut, commemorated the town’s partnership with a solemn candle-lighting ceremony designed to depict unity and support of the program.
Although East Lyme hasn’t seen an isolated increase in crimes against elderly, Sgt. Wilfred Blanchette, East Lyme Resident Trooper, said it faces the same trends as the rest of the country. He views the local TRIAD program as a proactive approach.
“Every 2.7 minutes, one elderly person is victimized in the United States,” he said.
East Lyme Police Officer Jean Cavanaugh, who serves as the local TRIAD officer, said this assignment increases the amount of time she spends checking with seniors on crime prevention needs, either individually or through the town’s senior center.
Organizers wasted no time in kicking off the first TRIAD program. Yellow Dot is an identification plan for seniors in their automobiles. Seniors are to pencil in their personal health information—name, medical conditions, allergies, and medications, as well as emergency and medical contacts—and put a recent photo of themselves on designated yellow cards. A yellow dot posted on their car’s rear window alerts first responders and emergency personnel to look for the form in the car glove box.
The yellow forms don’t include Social Security numbers or any financial information, Officer Cavanaugh noted. Seniors will be responsible for keeping their health information updated on the cards.
Seniors who did not get their Yellow Dot cards completed and photos taken at an event on Nov. 17 can check in at the East Lyme Senior Center or the East Lyme Police Department.
A similar program, the File of Life, will be launched in early 2009. It alerts first responders that one or more of a home’s occupants are TRIAD participants and have documented similar personal health information on a card. A sticker on the front door alerts first responders that the information is posted in a designated spot in the residence.
First Selectman Paul Formica announced that the East Lyme Ambulance Foundation has purchased File of Life kits for 2,000 households.
Cavanaugh said the next push will be to help seniors to avoid telephone and Internet fraud, both growth areas.
“We are the age group of choice of most scam artists,” Angela DeLeon told the East Lyme seniors at their TRIAD ceremony. “They will be calling, telling you they can get you better rates on your CDs, your investments.”
DeLeon deserves the credit for starting the TRIAD concept and the File of Life program. She was working as a Senior Crime Prevention Specialist in the Bridgeport Police Department in 1992 when the first TRIAD in the northeastern United States was established there. Frustrated that first responders couldn’t find the medical emergency and contact information for an elderly woman who was beaten, DeLeon came up with the card.
DeLeon has since joined People’s Bank as an employee to organize its Masters Program for seniors and serves as TRIAD coordinator. The company points out that it is the only financial services organization in the country that provides crime prevention and awareness training to seniors.
With more than 300 branch offices in New England and New York, she said she gets a call a day from seniors who have been hit up by a scam artist.
“Scam artists aren’t going to tell you they are a criminal and want to get your money. They are going to befriend you first,” she said. “Do not continue talking to this person.”
She advised seniors not to sit on a secret or word of promised financial gain. Banks do not call and solicit on the phone in Connecticut, she said, so anyone who hears of a great offer needs to go visit their local bank office.
If they get offers of something that sounds too good to be true, particularly if it is from an overly friendly stranger, she also recommended seniors alert Officer Cavanaugh or report it to the East Lyme Senior Center.
Unfortunately, people have to watch out for scams from friends-of-friends, or extended family members, she said. She recounted how the granddaughter of a patron of the Shelton Senior Center had been very effective in convincing the woman’s friends to lend her money because she was in the middle of an embarrassing lawsuit. She reportedly got thousands of dollars this way, convincing multiple seniors to help her but not breathe a word of it to her grandmother. Someone finally told the town’s TRIAD officer. The young woman has been arrested.
Women who came to the East Lyme ceremony also were given a stretchy yellow wrist band and a whistle, with instructions to put their house keys on the band and wear it, instead of tossing these into their handbags. Otherwise, by the time a person recovers from the trauma of a purse-snatching or discovers that their handbag has been taken, she said, the perpetrator has already gotten access to the home.
DeLeon said not to assume what a purse-snatcher may look like, noting how a 16-year-old girl recently had been catching unsuspecting seniors off-guard in Milford and Seymour in Fairfield County.
Other area towns that have formed TRIADs include Waterford, Ledyard, and Stonington.
For more information or to report suspicious activities, call this non-emergency number for the East Lyme Police: 739-5900.
By Suzanne Thompson
Special to the Times
Safety Tips from Sgt. Blanchette,
East Lyme Resident Trooper
• Be aware of your surroundings at all times.
• Be street smart and stay away from dark allies
or parking lots.
• Walk with a friend.
• Keep car doors and windows closed and locked.
• Don’t open doors or roll down car windows if a stranger approaches you.
• Park in well-lit areas.
• Be safe at home by locking doors and windows when you are at home and away.
• Make sure the locks are strong. Check them often.
• Use home alarm systems.
• Make lists of your expensive belongings.
• Take photographs of your most valuable items.
• Store this information in a safe place.
• Don’t open your door to a stranger.
• Ask any stranger for proof of identity before opening
your door.
• Don’t keep large amounts of cash around your house.
• Join the East Lyme Police Neighborhood Watch program.