Authorities spent the morning fingerprinting and photographing elementary schoolers at Morristown’s Alexander Hamilton School. But these kids were not the usual suspects.
The event was part of a national campaign to create I.D. kits that parents can share with police if children ever go missing.
“When something like that happens, parents are often hysterical. We need information in the first few minutes to increase our chances of getting a child back,” said Alan Robinson, of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Alan said 85- to 90 percent of the 800,000 people reported as missing each year are children. Ninety-nine percent of the missing are recovered–though not necessarily alive. “We want it to be 100 percent,” he said, asserting that the only way to hit that target is through prevention of abductions.
All reports of missing children are treated seriously, said Morris County Prosecutor Robert Bianchi. Getting accurate photos, descriptions and prints–materials collected today to send home to parents–is imperative for successful investigations, he said,
“Seconds make a difference,” the prosecutor said.
Figures on reports of missing children in Morris County and Morristown were not immediately available.
Today’s event was called Take 25, in remembrance of 6-year-old Etan Patz, who vanished in New York en route to school on this day in 1979. The idea is for educators and students to take 25 minutes to compile these emergency dossiers on children. The kits are kept by parents, not by school officials or law enforcement, the prosecutor said.
Police from Morristown and Morris Township assisted at the event. Children were given plastic police badges after completing their ID kits.
“We’re getting a child ID kit so if we ever get lost, we can be found quickly,” explained Teresa Cabella, a third-grader.
Parents of at least 200 children authorized participation by their kids, said school Principal Josephine Noone. She added that the school nurse, Meg Goss, routinely cautions kids about strangers.
The prosecutor said his staffers often donate time on nights and weekends for similar outreach programs, most often at the Rockaway Townsquare Mall.
