FDLE Works on Rapid Response in Abduction Cases

Posted: Fri Nov 10, 2006 3:52 pm

Originally published November 10, 2006

FDLE works on rapid response in abduction cases

By Chitra Subramanyam
DEMOCRAT STAFF WRITER

"The clock is ticking," Special Agent Tal Whiddon told government and law-enforcement representatives Thursday at the Florida Department of Law Enforcement headquarters.

When a child is abducted, every minute counts, he said.

Whiddon was one of many FDLE agents speaking to more than 30 members of FDLE's North Florida Child Abduction Response Team during a training session. The aim was to share information, discuss issues that come up while responding to abductions and get an update on the resources available.

The resources include dogs, dive teams, SWAT teams and helicopters, said special agent supervisor Chris Hirst.

The goal of the abduction-response team, Hirst said, is to "bring every kid home. You think of it and treat it like your child. If you go with that premise, you go with everything you can."

The team was first established in January 2005. A year earlier, in February 2004, 11-year-old Carlie Brucia was kidnapped and murdered in Sarasota. Hirst said that the Brucia case and several others like it in the state indicated a need for "rapid response."

Hirst said that when he's informed of an abduction, a "reverse 911" is sent out to all team members. Teams are then deployed in the search area to investigate, and if possible, rescue the child.

There can be 60 to 100 team members and police officers in a large-scale operation.

Of abducted children who are murdered:

44 percent are murdered within the first hour

74 percent die within the first three hours

91 percent die within 24 hours

99 percent of children missing for more than seven days do not make it home alive

Contact reporter Chitra Subramanyam at
(850) 599-2304 or csubramanyam @tallahassee.com.

http://www.tallahassee.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061110/NEWS01/611100334/1010/NEWS01