How parents can help find missing kids
How parents can help find missing kids Thursday, December 28, 2006 By JASON TSAI STAFF WRITER Wednesday, Dec. 27, 2006 When a child goes missing, nothing is more important to authorities than time. Responding to that need, an industry has grown around helping police identify youngsters more quickly if they are abducted, run away or are involved in an accident. Yet police say such newfangled products, some of which sell for up to $60, can be easily replicated by parents with relatively little trouble. "The technology employed by many of these companies is readily accessible to the general public," said Sgt. Stephen Jones of the New Jersey State Police. Those in the child-identification industry say their software can do what traditional wallet-sized ID cards cannot: Send vital information about a missing child -- including a description, photographs, online chat names and favorite Web sites – to authorities. Police can then issue alerts to fellow law enforcement agencies. "Every moment counts in an abduction case," said Chuck Bowman, CEO of Life-Prints Solutions, a Middlesex County company that sells software that parents can use to create digital "snapshots" of their children. "The main gist for us is to speed up the investigation." Such technology may make creating a digital profile of a child "slightly more convenient," said North Arlington police Lt. John Hearn, "but it comes with a cost." "Many parents can produce the same thing on their own," Hearn said. It doesn't take much work, either. "The really important part the pictures," said Jones of the state police. High-resolution photographs remain "the common denominator," said Union County Police Department Lt. Dean Falzarano, who helped create digital disks that allow participating parents to collect photos, fingerprints and other information about their children. The information can then be e-mailed to authorities, he said. "Police had, for a very long time, used paper and ink to make child ID cards," said Falzarano, who created the disks -- known as D-ChIPS -- with three fellow Union County officers three years ago. "But now, just like everything else, people think along the lines of technology." The evolving child-identification industry began gaining traction about five years ago. "Parents didn't even begin carrying child identification cards until relatively recently," said Debra LaPorte, CEO of YourSafeChild.com, which sells ID kits that start at $5.99. "There was an innocence there. No one really thought of children getting abducted." In recent years, however, the popularity of television forensic dramas and widely publicized reports of missing children have spawned an industry of virtual profiles and other innovative child identification methods. Some companies, like Florida-based DNA LifePrint, sell do-it-yourself DNA extraction kits for around $15 that allow parents to store cotton swabs they've used to swipe the inside of their children's mouths. The companies developing the new technologies say they aim to offer parents peace of mind amid an oft-quoted figure of 800,000 children reported missing nationwide each year. Statistics show, however, that the majority are cases in which the child is quickly recovered -- uninjured -- sometimes after accidentally getting lost at the supermarket, a park or a beach. The gravest incidents – in which a stranger whisks a child away and either kills, demands ransom or intends to keep the child permanently – occur roughly 100 times a year, according to the U.S. Justice Department. "I can understand why businesses would jump on the bandwagon these days," said Lawrence Kobilinsky, a professor of forensic science at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice in Manhattan. "But there are things parents can do themselves. Cheek swabs cost them nothing, for instance." Each year, the Emerson Police Department helps parents create free, personalized identification packets for children. The folders contain a photograph, description, fingerprints and more, said Police Chief Michael Saudino. Ridgefield police offer borough parents free eight-page folders made by the child-identification company Fingerprint America. "It's a little packet, about the size of a notepad," said Deputy Police Chief Richard Stoltenborg. "Parents can place a photo in it and a fingerprint. There is a physical information sheet, dental record and a place to seal a DNA sample from the inside of the mouth." Such kits and services are normally given away by police on high-volume days, such as the first day of school or at community fairs -- something Wyckoff Police Capt. Benjamin Fox said is an added benefit. "That way, we're making this type of service available to more people than, say, companies that sell their technology to a select few people who can afford it," he said. Although there are no apparent clear-cut, high-profile examples, advocates of the new technology say digitized child identification clearly benefits investigations. The first three hours after a child goes missing are the most critical for authorities, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. As a result, the state D.A.R.E. program began a partnership this fall with Life-Prints, in which $3 from each sale of the $29.95 software goes toward local D.A.R.E. programs against youth involvement in drugs, gangs and violence. In return, Life-Prints is allowed to use the D.A.R.E. logo in advertisements, said Nicholas DeMauro, CEO of the state D.A.R.E. program. Staff Writers Tom Troncone and Carolyn Salazar contributed to this article. E-mail: tsai@northjersey.com 7045976 Create your own child-identification kit (Themis has personally done this, so she may be able to answer any questions. :) ) Parents should include: *Up-to-date digital photographs of your children. *Accurate description, including height, weight, hair color and scars or marks. *Most recent dental records. *Hair samples, for DNA identification. (You also can swipe the inside of your child's mouth with a cotton swab, allow it to air dry and then store it in a cool place for safekeeping.) Source: Sgt. James Price, New Jersey State Police Missing Persons Unit http://www.northjersey.com/page.php?qstr=eXJpcnk3ZjczN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXkzJmZnYmVsN2Y3dnFlZUVFeXk3MDQ1OTc2JnlyaXJ5N2Y3MTdmN3ZxZWVFRXl5Mg==