La Mesa Police and a helicopter combed the area around Amaya Drive last Friday for a missing 62-year-old man classified as at risk, after he was last seen wearing a blue shirt and gray shorts roughly two hours before officers issued their public alert. Harold Douglas, a Black male with black short hair, was reported missing from the area of 8130 Allison Avenue, and his direction of travel is unknown.
The department shared details of the search in a notification posted at 11:45 AM, according to La Mesa PD, which described Douglas as wearing black shoes along with his blue shirt and gray shorts. Anyone who sees him is asked to call 9-1-1, and the department also listed a non-emergency line, 619-463-6611, for those with additional information.
LMPD and helicopter looking for missing person at risk from Amaya Dr. Click here for additional info: https://t.co/3sBkmkUJn7
— La Mesa PD (@LaMesaPD) August 29, 2026
Douglas was designated a missing person at risk, a classification that triggers specific obligations for police under California law. Under Penal Code Section 14205, agencies receiving a report on an at-risk missing adult must transmit that report to the California Department of Justice Violent Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center within two hours, a mandatory rapid-reporting requirement enacted through Assembly Bill 34, according to CalAlerts.
Why Police Called In Air Support
Because La Mesa Police do not maintain their own aviation unit, the department turned to the San Diego County Sheriff's Department's Aerial Support to Regional Enforcement Agencies unit, known as ASTREA, for the search. The unit's helicopters carry forward-looking infrared technology that can detect human heat signatures from the air, per the Times of San Diego. ASTREA has supported La Mesa police operations before; in February, the unit joined LMPD in the 5500 block of Amaya Drive using thermal imaging and K-9 units to locate a burglary suspect near an occupied home, as reported by 619 News Media.
The Amaya Drive corridor where Friday's search unfolded also sits near a significant piece of regional transit infrastructure. The Amaya Drive San Diego Trolley Station, a park-and-ride facility with 236 parking spaces served by both the Green Line and Orange Line, connects La Mesa directly to downtown San Diego, El Cajon, and Santee, according to the San Diego Metropolitan Transit System. That access point matters because Douglas's direction of travel remains unknown, and nearby transit lines could offer routes beyond the immediate search area.
How Residents Can Track the Search
Residents who hear a helicopter's loudspeaker announcements overhead but cannot make out the message have an option: the San Diego County Sheriff's Office maintains a dedicated text line, 858-866-HELO, where texting “Hello” returns the text of the aircraft's public address broadcast, according to the Spring Valley Community Alliance. The city also distributes public safety advisories through the regional Alert San Diego system and local Nixle text and email notifications, per the City of La Mesa.
Friday's search is not the first time this year that La Mesa Police have leaned on statewide alert tools to find a missing resident. In January, the department and the California Highway Patrol issued an Ebony Alert for 24-year-old Tiffanie Russ after she disappeared from Fletcher Parkway, as Hoodline previously reported. California's various alert systems, including the Silver Alert program created under Senate Bill 1047 for developmentally disabled, cognitively impaired, or elderly individuals determined to be at risk, are designed to mobilize the public quickly before a vulnerable person travels far from where they were last seen, according to the California Highway Patrol.
The La Mesa Police Department, which operates with 69 sworn officers and 31 civilian employees and fields more than 100,000 calls for service annually, relies on regional partners like ASTREA for specialized resources such as aerial search capability, per the City of La Mesa. Nationally, missing person reports total roughly 520,000 a year, down from a peak of nearly one million in 1997, according to the ASU Center for Problem-Oriented Policing, underscoring why at-risk classifications are used to prioritize resources among a large volume of cases. As of Friday afternoon, Douglas had not been located, and police had not released further updates on the search.
