KANSAS NEWS

Child I.D. Kits available for free


By Syed Shabbir
Topeka — Reports from the National Crime Information Center and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children show that on average child abductions occur every 43 seconds in the United States, and now the Topeka Police Department wants area parents to be prepared.

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Child I.D. Kits available for free


The Topeka Police Department says I.D. kits can help law enforcement locate missing children.
Sgt. Ron Gish says every parent should complete one of the department's Child Print I.D. Kits. "They have everything they need to document the information that we need if we were trying to locate a child," Gish said. The kit goes beyond the standard name and picture. In fact it has a bag to collect hair samples, an ink-pad for fingerprints, and even a mouth piece to get the child's teeth-prints. "If we bring in a tracking dog, that tracking dog is going to have a good scent to start with for that child," Gish said. Child I.D. kits are also being made by the Masons of Kansas, which has started a new program called KS CHIP."When a child turns up missing of course it's a frantic time for parents," KS CHIP organizer Joseph Stiles said. "If you have this ready to go and you're ready to hand it to the police, it just makes it so much easier."KS CHIP takes the I.D. Kit one step further. In addition to an up-to-date photo of the child, KS CHIP records a personalized video interview with the child. Law enforcement can then know what the child's voice sounds like, his mannerisms and dialect.Sgt. Gish says the kits can also be used when families are displaced in natural disasters, and kits can also be useful for family members who suffer from Alzheimer's.Kits are available for free at the Topeka Police Department, 320 S Kansas Ave. Click here for more information on KS CHIP.
http://www.ktka.com/news/2010/oct/11/child-id-kits-available-free/?topeka_news

Kansas' child abduction response team earned certification from the U.S. Department of Justice, the state attorney general said Tuesday.Attorney General Steve Six said the state's program was among five approved following a DOJ policy review and completion of a full-scale mock child abduction exercise monitored by federal officials. Required testing occurred during October in Arkansas City.Kansas was the 10th state to earn federal certification, he said."The response time when a child is abducted must be measured in minutes and hours, not days," Six said.He said certification was a collaborative effort among the attorney general's office, the Kansas Bureau of Investigation, the Kansas Highway Patrol and local agencies.The attorney general's Child Abduction Response Team, or CART, is designed to compliment the Amber Alert initiative, which works to distribute information on a missing child. Local CART units will be trained to assist search and rescue activities led by law enforcement officers."By quickly distributing information to the public through an Amber Alert and executing a coordinated search effort with CART, Kansas law enforcement can better respond to child abduction," Six said.