Recent Advances in the Tracking of Missing Children
As of the year 2000, almost 90% of the missing persons reported in the United States were children. That translates into over two thousand kidnappings reported in our country every single day. The sad fact is that juveniles are detained illegally or against their will by relatives or acquaintances in 76% of these cases. There is not enough legislation in place to combat these alarming statistics, and the sluggish response of many law enforcement agencies to kidnapping reports does nothing to help calm a parent in panic mode. For this reason, parents are utilizing new technology to take action when it comes to keeping track of their children. Personal tracking devices use state of the art GPS technology to locate a target in real time. This type of device puts parents at ease and eliminates that moment of panic when a child is late returning from school, gets caught up in a crowd at the local store or market, or decides to stay with a friend unexpectedly. In addition to easing the daily stress of keeping tabs on a child, a personal tracking device can be a lifesaver if your child ever goes missing.
You can adjust the tracking and notification settings of a personal GPS device depending on how much daily supervision your child needs. Some parents feel that constant monitoring is an unnecessary invasion of privacy and choose only to activate the tracking service in the case of an emergency. Other parents, with children who aren’t as reliable about being where they say they are, especially throughout the teenage years, can set up geographical boundaries and be alerted immediately if their child is somewhere they shouldn’t be. These alerts can come in the form of a phone call, email, or text message.
Certain models of the child tracking devices are sophisticated enough to monitor body temperature, heart rate, and blood pressure, which can provide additional diagnostics for assessing missing child cases.
Child tracking devices use Global Positioning System technology to triangulate the location of the target within the area of a city block. This tracking is done by bouncing a communications signal back and forth to a number of satellites that orbit the Earth. The tracking device itself is equipped with both a transmitter and receiver, which allows it to communicate with the government-issued satellites in real time. This type of device affords parents the option of taking immediate action should their child go missing or be taken against their will. Simply locating the child allows police to work out a proper rescue plan.
In 2006, the PatienTrak system struck a deal with the National Missing Child Alert system to improve the identification information available to law enforcement officials in missing persons cases. While PatienTrak is not a personalized GPS tracking system, it is a detailed database of medical records and family descriptions available electronically that can help facilitate the search for a missing child. The system includes updated photos, recent addresses and phone numbers of relatives, and a search algorithm that can sent alerts via the phone to other residents and businesses in the area of interest. The system is available nation-wide as has located over 130 missing children to date.
Help Find Missing Children
Being in a situation where you know someone whose child is missing can be really frustrating as you might not know what to do to help the parents out. If you want to help in finding missing children, here are some helpful tips:
· Get people on board as volunteers: you need a group effort, finding missing children involve a lot of effort which can spread over a large area that can be impossible for an individual to cover alone. You can either make a group to join your effort or ask an already existing group in your area to help you in fining the missing child.
· Devise a plan: you need to assign task and divide work among your group of volunteers. Gather as much information as you can about the missing child. You need to decide when and how you are going to utilize resources you have gathered in finding missing children.
· Information: In missing children’s case you need to gather information regarding the child’s name, age, weight, description, recent picture, where the child was last seen, etc. you should know where the report of the missing child has been filed and who is investigating the case? You also need to know if there has been an AMBER alert being issued and what other networks are being utilized to spread the information regarding the missing children.
· Poster Campaign: The first step in searching for missing children is to design and run a poster campaign of information about the missing child containing a picture, description and contact details. These posters are hanged around the neighborhood or at the place where the child was last seen.
· Web campaign: these days due to advancement in social networking on the web it has become essential to utilize these networks to spread awareness regarding missing children. You can utilize social networks like Facebook and Twitter, etc to effectively send information regarding missing children over huge number of relevant people with minimal efforts. There are also networks like National center for missing and exploited children or the vanished children alliance to name a few who are present on the web and can be approached easily for guidance and spreading awareness. You can also make banners, links or blogs to help spread awareness of missing children.
· Amber Alert: this stands for America’s missing: Broadcast and emergency response. Amber Alert is named after a 9 year old girl who was abducted and then brutally murdered. Amber Alert is a system through which the police and the broadcasting media team up and send alert through media to the public to create awareness for missing children. In order to be effective Amber Alert has to be issued as soon as it is established that the child is missing and a report has been filled with the police. In Amber Alert the public acts as an extended eyes and ears of the police. It has helped them gather relevant information which has led to recovery of so many missing children over the years.
In missing children’s case time is a deciding factor, if you really want to help find a missing child than help making and sustaining a strong network which comes in to motion as soon as there is a child missing. You can sign up for Amber Alert and play your role in finding missing children.
