COLUMBIA, S.C. - Some South Carolina police agencies are adopting a Silver Alert system to locate seniors with dementia who wander away.

"If a senior would go missing, immediately this would go into effect just as the Amber Alert currently does, basically piggybacking on that system," Lt. Gov. Andre Bauer said Tuesday at a news conference with sheriffs from Lexington, Orangeburg, Newberry, Richland, Saluda and Sumter counties and the city of Sumter's police chief.

"When a vulnerable adult wanders off and is not recovered quickly, their chances diminish greatly every hour they are not found," said Bauer, who runs the South Carolina Office on Aging.

Bauer noted North Carolina and other states already have Silver Alerts and that pending federal legislation would offer grant money to encourage states to adopt them.

"If we do it now, it's unfunded. They will have to absorb the cost in their budgets," Bauer said.

If state money is needed, Bauer said he'd seek that from the Legislature. "We're not talking about a whole bunch of money. And if you have to put one of these people in an ER, what's that going to cost taxpayers?"

Sumter Police Chief Patty Patterson says a Silver Alert could have helped find Barbara Ellen Brunson. The 66-year-old woman wandered from a care facility on Aug. 4 and hasn't been found. She'd been known for wandering away before. Police found out she was gone only after she had been missing for 12 hours.

A Silver Alert would have gotten word out faster, Patterson said.

At least 10 states, including Colorado, Georgia, Kentucky, North Carolina, Texas and Virginia already issue Silver Alerts.

North Carolina has operated its Silver Alert program since November 2007 and issued 67 alerts. North Carolina Department of Crime Control and Public Safety data shows six people were deceased. Agency spokeswoman Julia Jarema said one person didn't want to be found and that case was closed.

The North Carolina's system doesn't operate exactly like the Amber Alert system for children and it's unlikely South Carolina's will either.

For instance, Jarema said federal law limits the use of flashing bulletin signs on major highways. Amber Alerts come with detailed descriptions, but Silver Alerts tell drivers only that a Silver Alert has been issued and give a number to call for information.

Getting alerts of any kind on the message boards is an early stumbling block, Bauer said.

Meanwhile, the scope and criteria for alerts are different, too. The South Carolina Alzheimer's Association says 70,000 people in the state have the disease and six of 10 will wander away from caregivers at some point.

That could mean so many alerts that the public quits paying attention. Bauer said there's also concern that Silver Alerts could water down the effectiveness of the Amber Alerts. "But I don't want to have so many reservations about watering it down that a senior goes wandering and I don't step up and say we didn't' do everything we possibly could have done."

Successfully locating a few missing seniors, Bauer said, will keep the public engaged and interested.

Meanwhile, Amber Alerts tend to require evidence a child was abducted. With Silver Alerts, the seniors wander away on their own, raising a question about the guidelines that would be used to issue alerts. Newberry County Sheriff Lee Foster said guidelines will be developed.

"If it's your mama that's missing, you want everybody in the world looking for them," Foster said.

He brushed aside the suggestion seniors with dementia wander off voluntarily. He said their disease is controlling their behavior.

Meanwhile, "it's incumbent on us to try to get that parent back to their children that's worried about them missing," Foster said.