Submitted by: Patrol and Tactical Operations Committee

PTOC.16.20

WHEREAS, it is the worst nightmare of every parent, guardian, and law enforcement agency to discover their/a child is missing or abducted; and

WHEREAS, annually there are approximately 200,000 missing children reported in the United States and approximately 37,000 missing children reported in Canada; and

WHEREAS, the first three hours of a missing and/or abducted child are the most critical in the initial investigation; and

WHEREAS, the case of a missing/abducted child needs to be handled expeditiously and differently than all other cases; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement agencies must recognize critical issues and procedures during the patrol response stage that may directly impact the safe recovery and/or ensure an effective criminal investigation; and

WHEREAS, formally established multijurisdictional Child Abduction Response Teams (CARTs) should be established in preparation for missing and/or abducted children; and

WHEREAS, law enforcement agencies should enhance their knowledge of additional resources that are available in missing children cases such as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the FBI National Child Abduction Rapid Deployment (CARD); and

WHEREAS, it is critical for law enforcement executives to  ensure clearly defined  policy guidelines, checklists, officer training and performance auditing, public notification, and reporting criteria are established; now, let it be

RESOLVED, that the IACP strongly supports the authority of law enforcement executives to  develop policies, comprehensive checklists, multijurisdictional CARTs, training, and resources, in order to ensure the effective response and investigation into missing children incidents.