Nanny GPS: Child Abduction
Nearly 1,000,000 children in the USA are reported missing every year. Are you prepared?*
There is a 1 in 42 chance your child will go missing in the USA before age 19. Do you have a plan?*
*Stats from the Department of Justice, USA
There are some key steps you can take now to be prepared in case your child goes missing. High speed emergency communications with law enforcement is critical. You should be prepared to provide relevant information about your child, quickly, to help investigators and the community identify missing children in those precious first hours. Collecting the data below will help law enforcement search for and identify your child when he or she is recovered.
- Keep a complete description of your child
This description must include color of hair, color of eyes, height, weight and date of birth. In addition the description should include identifiers such as glasses or contact lenses, braces, pierced ears, birth marks and any other unique physical identifiers.
- Take high quality, clear, color photographs of your child every 6 months or more often if your child appearance changes due to loss of tooth, hair style.
Photos must be a high quality, in sharp focus so your child is easily recognizable. Head and portraits from different angles are preferable but make sure you have a photo that most resembles your child. The face must be clearly seen. The background should be plain or solid so it does not distract from the subject. When possible the photograph should be in a digitized form, and available on a compact disk (CD), as opposed to just a hard copy. This minimizes the time necessary to scan, resize, and make color corrects before disseminating it to law enforcement.
The photograph should have space for accurate, narrative description useful to identify the child such as name, nickname, height, weight, sex, age, eye color, identifying marks, glasses, and braces.
All copies of child's photograph and information should be maintained in an easily accessible, secure space by the parents or guardian. The photograph and data should not be stored in a public database.
- Have your dentist prepare dental charts and prints for your child
Make sure the dental chart is updated each time an examination or dental work is performed and dental prints are taken once every two years until your child is 18 years old. If you move you should get a copy from your former dentist to keep yourself until a new dentist is found. You might also consider taking a bite impression of your child's teeth.
- Know where your child's medical records are located
It is important to have all permanent scars, birthmarks, blemishes and broken bones recorded.
- Arrange with your local law enforcement agency to have your child fingerprinted
Ask them to give you the finger print card and not to keep a record.
- Consider having a DNA sample taken from your child
It is simple for you to collect a DNA sample. For example, an old toothbrush used by your child contains their DNA. Allow the tooth brush to air dry and place it in a brown envelope. Get your child to lick the envelope shut and label it. You could also keep old baby teeth or dried blood from a bandage.
The key to being prepared is to have the vital information law enforcement need available immediately. You can create an identification box for each family member and store all their details as outlined above in a shoe box. The disadvantage is that this information is at home, or in the stored location, so may not be easily accessible if you are away from home or on holidays.
This is where the Internet is a valuable tool as it allows you immediate access to your child's personal details and photos. InstantAmberis a service where parents can subscribe to upload their child's information to a secure location. In the event of your child going missing, you have access to your child's personal information anywhere in the world, at anytime, and you can give this vital information immediately to authorities (no matter where you are). The law enforcement officer can instantly print a missing child flyer and have all the information they need straight away to start looking for your child.
What to do if your child is abducted
It's nearly unthinkable, but every year thousands of children become victims of crime.
Non-Family Abductions are defined as "Attempted abductions, for example luring of a child for the purposes of committing another crime. Coerced and unauthorized taking of a child into a building, a vehicle, or a distance of more than 20 feet, the detention of a child for a period of more than one hour".
It's a very fearsome thought for any parent: their child snatched by a stranger.
If your child goes missing, it is critical that you act immediately as the first few hours are vital in the case of missing children. You need to be prepared.
What to Do:
Worldwide Standard
If your child is missing from home, thoroughly search the house checking closets, piles of laundry, in and under beds, inside large appliances, and inside vehicles, including trunks and anywhere a child may crawl or hide.
If you still cannot find your child, immediately call your local law enforcement agency.
If your child disappears in a store, notify the store manager or security office. Then immediately call your local law-enforcement agency. In the USA many stores have a Code Adam plan of action - if a child is missing in the store, employees immediately mobilize to look for the missing child. Other Countries also operate similar plans of action.
When you call law enforcement, provide your child's name, date of birth, height, weight, and any other unique identifiers such as eyeglasses and braces. Tell them when you noticed that your child was missing and what clothing he or she was wearing.
In the USA
Request that your child's name and identifying information be immediately entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Person File.
After you have reported your child missing to law enforcement, call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on the toll-free telephone number: 1-800-THE-LOST (1-800-843-5678).
