Making every minute count: New technology could help police find missing children faster
By Rex Hodge
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CHEROKEE, North Carolina (WLOS) — Time is of the essence when children go missing. The Cherokee Indian Police Department has a new tool to help officers find missing children more quickly.
The Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians is one of the first tribes to receive the technology toolkit. It’s part of the Amber Alert system designed to help find missing and abducted children more quickly.
“I’m gracious for the Amber Alert in Indian Country Initiative,” Cherokee Police Chief Josh Taylor said.
He said the program will lead to more successes.
“A lot of times, there’s barriers and divisions between native lands and state lands. And I want to tear those walls down,” Taylor said.
The toolkit includes a tablet pre-loaded with material from the Missing and Exploited Children Center, a camera and document scanner.
“If you respond to a missing child and they have a photo that you need to upload, you can scan it in this portable document scanner here and send it to dispatch,” said Tyesha Wood, with Amber Alert in Indian Country.
She said the 2016 abduction and murder of Ashlynne Mike in the Navajo Nation spotlighted challenges many tribal authorities face, including a lack of internet service and sometimes inter-agency communication.
“We need to communicate, and we need to fill the gaps of partnerships with communication, training response,” Wood said.
Janell Rasmussen, who directs the Amber Alert training to federal, state, local and tribal law enforcement, said it’s unusual to see such a phenomenal partnership between a state agency and a tribe.
“We will continue the working relationship with the Qualla boundary,” said Nona Best, who heads up North Carolina’s Center for Missing Persons.
“This toolkit will ensure that if a child goes missing, the most effective, efficient and quickest response time will be in the hands of the Cherokee Police Department,” Best said.
She also looks for an even response, including media coverage, when people of different races go missing, pointing to the recent Gabby Petito case.
“Hopefully, that case was the case that will bring up more minorities, more brown skins attention. When they go missing, we’ll get just as much attention as anybody else,” Best said.
The technology toolkits will streamline the process. And the objective is to get more of the technology toolkits into the hands of more tribes this year.
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