The News Room [News Release]
Sheriff announces new immediate alert system to help locate
missing children --- Thousands of phone calls to be made
in area surrounding disappearance
Sheriff Warren C. Evans unveiled today a powerful new tool his
department will use to help locate children immediately after they
are reported missing in Wayne County.
The new “Sheriff’s Rescue Network” will involve
thousands of automated phone calls to homes and businesses in the
area immediately surrounding the location the child was last seen.
Evans said that the new system can make 1,000 calls in about 60
seconds and will cover a five-mile radius from the address of the
disappearance.
“
Time is the most critical factor working against us when we are
looking for a missing child,” Evans said. “Within a
matter of a few minutes, we will have the ability to contact thousands
of individuals who will become our eyes and ears to help us locate
the child,” Evans said.
Evans said that the recorded message will include information as
to the child’s last known whereabouts, as well as a description
of the child and any information regarding a possible abductor,
if one is believed to be involved.
In Wayne County, approximately 3,000 children are reported missing
each year. While most are either recovered or return on their own,
the county’s Missing & Exploited Children’s Task
Force, which is made up of Sheriff’s Deputies and Detroit
Police officers, has approximately 450 open cases.
The Missing & Exploited Children’s Task Force handles
primarily cases in the city of Detroit, but Evans is encouraging
police departments across the county to utilize the new system.
“
This is an extremely powerful tool and I hope that every police
agency in the county would advantage of it if the need arises,” Evans
said.
Because many of the missing children cases handled by this unit
involve teenage truants and runaways, Evans said the new system
would be used primarily for younger children under the age of ten.
“
When a young child comes up missing, you know it’s not a
matter of them being defiant or wanting to exert their will,” he
said. “The odds are much higher in these cases that the child
either has gotten lost or been abducted.”
Evans added that the system is already in place and available as
soon as it is needed.
The phone calling service for the Sheriff’s Alert Network
is being provided through “A Child is Missing,” [www.achildismissing.org],
a nonprofit agency that also serves the states of Ohio, Alaska,
Florida and Rhode Island. The program, which is credited with finding
more than 50 missing children nationwide, is free to law enforcement
agencies. The costs of the program are offset by private and corporate
donations, as well as law enforcement forfeiture funds.
Evans said that when a resident receives a call from the Sheriff’s
Rescue Network, the recorded message will include information about
whom to call with any tips.
» Go To Top
Sheriff's News...
Sheriff of Wayne County
1231 St. Antoine
Detroit, MI 48226
Ph: (313) 224-2222
Fx: (313) 224-2367