A man wears the tracking bracelet offered by Wenzhou police

The most worrisome issue for Lian Yongyi’s family is his mother’s personal safety. After her Alzheimer’s disease progressed last year, Lian’s mother couldn’t remember how to get back home when she went walking outside alone.

Fortunately, many of these worries and fears are no longer necessary, as Lian’s mother now wears a GPS tracking bracelet offered by the Wenzhou police to people with cognitive disorders. Since the launch of the program last fall, nearly 6,000 tracking bracelets have been distributed in the city.

The program has already proven a great success: all 73 people who were reported missing while wearing the bracelets were traced within one hour after police received the report. Lian’s mother was one of those cases.

One night in February, Lian called the police after his mother left home without telling anyone. Police traced the signals emitted by the bracelet and soon identified the elderly woman's location. Eventually she was tracked down - stranded and exhausted.

“She was unable to recognize the danger or call for help. I can’t imagine what would have happened if she hadn't been wearing the bracelet,” Lian recalled.

“What's behind the bracelets is a modern social security management system supported by Internet of Things technology,” said Li Wei, deputy director of the Wenzhou Public Security Bureau.

The Internet of Things has been a game-changer for social security in Wenzhou since its introduction in 2014. For example, the owners of 1.9 million motorcycles in the city benefited from it, as the number of the motorcycle thefts has dropped by 86.8 percent, down to around 3,700 in 2016 from more than 280,000 in 2013.

“We’re still exploring the potential role of the Internet of Things in improving Wenzhou’s public security. With limited examples to follow, there is a long road ahead,” Li said.