Wisconsin might become the first state in the nation to create a Green Alert system for missing vulnerable veterans, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. The system would be similar to state Amber and Silver alerts for missing children and older adults, respectively.
The state Senate passed legislation to create the system last week, and the state Assembly is expected to take up the bill in February.
“We’re hoping this goes national,” state Democratic Sen. LaTonya Johnson told the newspaper. Johnson had introduced the bill.
“Veterans give so much.” Johnson said.
Referring to an Air Force veteran whose death prompted her to introduce the bill, she said that the vet had “served (three) tours and he came home safe. If he made it home safe we should have done everything to make sure he was made whole.”
Republican state Assemblyman Joel Kleefisch, a sponsor of the bill, said he expects it to pass the Assembly and be on Gov. Scott Walker’s desk by the end of February.
“I will not be surprised if we see Green Alert in every state of the union in the next three to four years,” Kleefisch told the newspaper.
