INDIANOLA, Iowa — Integrity, professionalism, and dedication are three principals the Indianola Police Department prides itself on. And on Saturday, one officer put those words into action.
“We were all freaking out, my stomach was turning. It was scary for all of us,” said Lisa Occhipinto.
Lisa and her father, Rocco, live in Kansas City, Missouri, and on Saturday Rocco went missing after he was supposed to pick up Lisa’s son.
“Myself and my family, we all went out looking for him, I took Kansas, my daughter took Missouri,” said Occhipinto.
Rocco has dementia, and suffered from an episode that led him to drive to Iowa. Thankfully, he was found traveling in Indianola through license plate cameras, or flock cameras.
“The flock cameras are set up to our devices. They send me a ping of the vehicle, told me the location of the vehicle and what direction that vehicle was traveling, and we were able to identify that that person was indeed missing out of Missouri and initiate a traffic stop and locate them.” said Officer Drew Stevers with the Indianola Police Department.