Florida Database Created to Locate Victims' Families

Oct. 15--Florida residents now can put emergency contact information in their driver's license records to help police reach families in accidents and crimes.

"If by chance it turns out to be a tragedy or fatal, you can notify the family quicker," Broward Sheriff's Office spokeswoman Keyla Concepcion said.

"Maybe you can give them a few last minutes together," she said.

A week after the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles added the feature on Oct. 2, about 31,450 people had added emergency contact information, department spokesman Frank Penela said.

For now, the residents can only submit contacts using the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles website.

Starting next year, people will be able to add or update contacts at driver's license offices.

CONTACT INFORMATION

People can submit two contacts online by logging in with their driver's license numbers. The online form requires names and addresses and provides space for telephone numbers.

Although the Florida Highway Patrol hasn't needed to use the new information in Broward County yet, spokesman Sgt. Mark Wysocky said officers have wished they had it in previous accidents.

Officers often try to find family members by using license plates and driver's licenses to look up injured people's addresses.

When the information is outdated or no one else lives at the address, it can take officials hours or days to locate family, Wysocky said.

The new contact information takes officers directly to the people they need to reach, as long as users update regularly.

The information goes into the state's secure driver's license database, which only officials can access. Out-of-state police can't directly reach the data, but they'll notify Florida and receive the addresses from there, Wysocky said.

Anyone with a valid Florida driver's license or identification card can add contact information. Parents can purchase $3 Florida ID cards with emergency contact information for children 5 and older.

WHERE SPEED HELPS

Concepcion said officials already can guess where the data will help the most.

A lost child or someone with Alzheimer's disease might have trouble giving police accurate contact information, she said, but if it is in their records, they can let their ID cards do the talking.

Without direct contact information, officers also can end up hunting for family across the country when college students or other drivers without family in state get hurt.

The faster police make contact, the sooner there's someone to comfort an injured person or tell emergency crews about a critical medical condition.

BSO deputies and police officers probably will use the contact information most often to notify families after fatal accidents, Concepcion said.

Officials still encourage people to put numbers in their cellphones under the title "ICE" for In Case of Emergency, but the new system is best with deaths because law enforcement agencies prefer addresses, Wysocky said.

"In a fatality, it's not something you want to do on the phone," he said. "You want to tell them in person."

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