Missing Child System Works

So very often we are telling you about the about missing children, and how something went wrong in the system that caused them to fall through the proverbial cracks. Today we have a story of a boy that was missing, the system kicked in, and the child was found quickly and safely.

An 11-year-old boy reported missing Monday evening in Seymour was found safe and sound early Tuesday morning, thanks to a pre-recorded telephone message that went out to 1,000 homes in the area.

Seymour Assistant Police Chief Bill Elliott said the boy’s parents reported him missing at 6:30 p.m. Monday after he didn’t come home from basketball practice. The boy later was found at a friend’s house, where he had told the friend’s parents he had permission to spend the night.

Police officers were able to track down the boy after receiving a phone call from a woman responding to the A Child is Missing message. The caller advised that her son had seen the missing boy with another child. Officers then were able to contact that child’s parents and found the boy there. The initial prerecorded message went out just a few minutes before 2 a.m. Police received the tip a few minutes after 2 a.m., and by 2:10 a.m. had located the boy.

“Everything turned out just fine and we are very thankful for that,” Elliott said. “Although the boy was never in any danger, his parents were very worried. via The Tribune

We have previously talked about the A Child is Missing system, and think that proactive tools for the police and community to use are the way to combat the horror of missing children. It is not necessarily the product of A Child is Missing that we are advocating, but the proactive response to this issue that would make all the difference. Information needs to be disseminated, as this weblog does, so that when a crisis happens, people who have the information that can make a difference can be brought into the loop as soon as possible.

More articles here, here , and here.