Computer system aids in search for missing children

A frantic mother. A missing child. A bad guy on the loose.

In times like these, the last thing a police department needs is a slow computer and outdated software, especially considering a Washington State Attorney General's Office study that says 74 percent of missing-child homicides occur within the first three hours of the abduction.

To help move critical child-abduction information along as quickly as possible, the Cape Girardeau County Sheriff's Department elicited the aid of a federally funded program called the Lost Child Alert Technology Resource, or LOCATER.

The department implemented the system last week. LOCATER is a computer system designed to share information quickly.

"All you have to do is hit a couple of buttons and 2,000 police departments get a flyer," said Lt. David James of the sheriff's department.

Through a congressional mandate and U.S. Department of Justice grant, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children offers specific tools and equipment at no charge to any law enforcement agency whose responsibilities include investigating cases of missing or abducted children.

The Cape Girardeau Police Department uses a similar system, called TRAK, Technology to Recover Abducted Kids.

Cape Girardeau Police Department Lt. Tracy Lemonds said the department has used the system about three times to send photos of missing children to other departments since the technology became available in 2000.

The county applied for LOCATER on July 2, but has yet to receive word of when it will get its system, Lt. David James said.

The LOCATER program includes a Dell Pentium IV computer, a printer, a high-resolution scanner and customized software.

It is not limited to missing children cases. It includes templates for more than 100 different types of posters, such as missing adults, wanted persons and crime alerts.

How the LOCATER can be used

A law-enforcement agency receives a missing-child report and obtains the child's photograph from a parent or legal guardian.The child's image can also be submitted on a diskette or by e-mail.

After entering the missing child's information into the National Crime Information Center's (NCIC) computer, the user launches LOCATER. The poster-creation software and templates guide the user through the process of generating a poster.

The user prints high-quality color posters to be distributed at roll calls, at incident command posts, and to the public.

The user selects from a list of LOCATER users or other law-enforcement agencies to distribute the poster or inputs e-mail addresses of recipients at his or her discretion. If the list includes an agency with a LOCATER system, the receiving system will activate an audible and visual signal.

Receiving law-enforcement agencies can view, print, and distribute the poster repeatedly.

In addition to alerting law-enforcement agencies, users can e-mail or fax posters to the media and public as deemed appropriate.

Source: www.locaterposters.org