“Program uses phone calls, community to find missing people”

Program uses phone calls, community to find missing people

Posted: 26 Oct 2010 02:41 PM PDT

Credit: Jay Hare / jhare@dothaneagle.com

E-911 Assistant Director Paula Simmons, E-911 Director Tina Jones, Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey, Dale county Sheriff Wally Olsen and Ozark Police Capt. Tim Hicks (from left) address the media during a press conference describing a new alert system to help find missing persons.

How it works:Caregiver of a missing child, college student, elderly or special needs person notifies ...

How it works:

Caregiver of a missing child, college student, elderly or special needs person notifies law enforcement

Law enforcement agency notifies A Child is Missing program

Information about the missing person's last known location – either last known address or two cross streets of last known address – are noted

A satellite map is viewed and 1,000 calls per minute are released in a documented radius seeking community involvement in the search

Source: A Child is Missing program.

OZARK – A newly implemented program targeted at significantly decreasing search times for missing children, college students and disabled adults gets the community more involved in the searches.

The Ozark Police Department and Dale County Sheriff's Office announced Tuesday an agreement with the "A Child is Missing" Program based in Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

According to Ozark-Dale County E-911 Director Tina Jones, law enforcement agencies notify the E-911 system that a person is missing, record a message, and the message is forwarded to every landline telephone in a designated area while the search is in place.

Residents who do not have a landline can sign up here to have their cellular phone notified via text message so that residents can look out for the missing person.
The call center is to be updated every 15 minutes by the law enforcement agency leading the search.

The program is free to law enforcement.

Jones said the program eases the tasks of investigators who are trying to find a missing person.

"With this the investigator won't have to stop an investigation to trigger the process. It is different than the Amber Alert program in that there is no preliminary paperwork necessary, and there are no age criteria on the disabled," Jones said.

Ozark Police Chief Tony Spivey said the program will be most helpful in the city for missing children or adults who suffer illnesses, such as Alzheimer's.

"It's something we hope we never have to use, but it is another resource or another tool to expedite these searches. It puts a lot more eyes in the community," he said.

According to program Vice President Claudia Corrigan, nearly 800 recovery efforts have been successful because of the program, with half of the recoveries occurring in the last two years.
Recovery time is often less than 60 minutes, according to Corrigan.

"The more the police use us, the more we get the calls out there, the faster we find everybody. It's especially important for those cases where a missing person doesn't qualify for a television or radio notification," she said.

In addition to the missing person aspect of the program, Spivey said his department will also seek a way to use the program in conjunction with the state Community Notification laws to notify residents of when a convicted sex offender moves into a specific area.

This entry passed through the Full-Text RSS service — if this is your content and you're reading it on someone else's site, please read our FAQ page at fivefilters.org/content-only/faq.php
Five Filters featured article: Beyond Hiroshima - The Non-Reporting of Falluja's Cancer Catastrophe.