FSPD to launch missing persons recovery program

The Fort Scott Police Department on Monday announced it will implement a program that will help officers find missing persons quickly.

The nationwide program is called "A Child Is Missing." It goes into effect when a person is reported missing to law enforcement. An officer then calls an operator with the program. The officer provides a description of the person. The technician with A Child Is Missing records an individual alert message describing the person. The message is phoned out to an area where the person was last seen. With its high-tech capabilities, the system can place up to 1,000 recorded calls in 60 seconds. Call recipients are asked to call police with any information.

FSPD learned of the program after communications/ records supervisor Crystal Roberts began researching the program after the department's dispatchers found out about the system at a training conference.

"We felt this will be a very good program," Public Safety Director Jeff Davis said. "What it does for us as law enforcement is help us locate a missing child or even an elderly person in a very hopefully short period of time."

According to the A Child is Missing Alert, every 40 seconds a child is reported missing in the United States. Each year, more than 800,000 children and senior citizens are reported missing.

The program was created in the late 1990s in response to those statistics, and it has been successful in locating children since then. Law enforcement has credited the program with 270 successful recoveries. The average recovery time in those instances was 90 minutes, according to the program's records.

Twenty-three Kansas law enforcement departments currently use the program. Since March 2006, the system has been used 19 times with more than 22,000 calls made within those cases. The program has successfully led to one child being found.

Area law enforcement officials were on hand for the unveiling, which was followed by training for officers by a representative of A Child Is Missing. Bourbon County Sheriff Harold Coleman, who was in attendance, said the Bourbon County Sheriff's Office will be taking part in the program, as well.

Kansas' top law enforcement officer, Attorney General Paul Morrison, attended Monday's announcement.

He said timing and organization are critical in finding a missing person.

"When you have a kid missing, everybody wants to help, but how do you get the word out to everybody?" Morrison asked. "Programs like this that use technology can do that. To be successful in how we deal with crime, particularly with child abduction, it requires a coordinated effort among law enforcement, government and private entities."

A Child is Missing will not cost FSPD a dime. It's a non-profit organization that is funded through federal and state grants along with donations and fundraisers.

The program is primarily used for children 18 years old or younger who are lost, missing, run away, or are abducted. However, it can be used for any age, especially people who are mentally or physically disabled. Also, the elderly are more prone to wandering off, especially those who have Alzheimer's disease.

The initiative differs from an Amber Alert, which is used for children abducted, usually by strangers and transported in vehicles away from the area of disappearance.

This program offers more, said Ralph Caporale, a law enforcement trainer with A Child is Missing. There could be up to a 2-hour wait before law enforcement is approved to issue an Amber Alert. During the wait, a department can use A Child is Missing alert, he said.

The system won't be used every time a child has a habit of running away. The program doesn't want callers to become desensitized by being called each time a child runs away. However, officers can initiate a call on a habitual runaway if they feel there is sufficient reason to do so.

"We take orders from them (the officers)," Caporale said.

For more information about A Child Is Missing, along with numerous detailed success stories, go to www.achildismissing.org.