At the beginning of the Triad, the focus was on extending the concept as much as possible to ensure that older adults were safe throughout the country. As a result, triad agreements were signed in 47 countries, and any program and activity built to meet the individual needs of that community. Triad is an organization created in 1988 by a cooperation agreement between the American Association of Reprocessing Persons (AARP), the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) and the National Sheriffs` Association (NSA). Their mission was to create a specialized way to ensure the safety of the elderly in the United States, and more than eight hundred counties have now sung the triad agreement. Hampshire County, Massachusetts was the first to develop a Triad S.A.L.T. council in Amherst in 1992, consisting of police, firefighters, sheriff, district attorney, older adults, advice for aging staff, protection personnel and representatives of citizen groups. The majority of Hampshire municipalities have now formalized S.A.L.T. councils. Triad`s widespread acceptance led the NSA to form an associated and institutionalized non-profit organization called the National Association of Triads. In 1989, Louisiana signed the first national triad agreement, a vehicle that allowed municipalities in a given state to come together to exchange ideas and information. Since then, 34 states have signed a national agreement at one time or another. Many of these 34 national triad groups are still active and meet regularly to pool resources and train and provide technical assistance.
Tririad is the arrangement of law enforcement in a county (sheriff`s office, police, etc.) and elderly or retired people in the community to cooperate in a spirit of cooperation to reduce the criminal victimization of the elderly. Triad is a common approach to crime issues affecting older people – and strengthening repressive services for these people. The first triad agreement was signed in 1988 in St. Martin Parish, Louisiana. It was from then on that the word spread on the triad model and the communities, large and small, adopted the concept. The three founding groups AARP, IACP and NSA encouraged the idea at every opportunity. By the early 2000s, more than 800 counties had signed triad agreements.