Response, Search and Recovery of Missing and Abducted Children

COURSE DESCRIPTION AND AGEND (CLICK HERE)

Please be aware that this is a 2.5 day class.  The class will begin at 8:00am and end at 4:00pm.  The last day will end at Noon. 

Law enforcements agencies are tasked to respond to and effectively investigative reports of missing children incidents. The ability of an agency to timely deploy the appropriate investigative and search resources is of paramount importance in the successful recovery of missing or abducted children. However, understanding that many law enforcement agencies have limited resources, those agencies must seek out assistance from other law enforcement agencies and supporting disciplines to enhance those investigative and search/recovery efforts. This 2 ½ day course of instruction will provide the participants with the knowledge and skills necessary to enhance that response. An in-depth look at both criminal and civil remedies that law enforcement can utilize will be covered. Moreover, direct steps to establish tried and true investigative measures, to include the framework of task force creation and implementation will be provided. Through scenario-based training, the participants will take part in reviewing case studies, participate in missing or abducted children practicums and through work groups, assist in identifying the strengths and weaknesses in an agency’s response to missing and abducted children incidents. Additionally, the participants will identify and utilize additional resources to strengthen an agency’s missing child response. Additionally, field interview and assessment guides will be provided to each participant. To enhance the participant’s knowledge and skill set, this course of instruction will cover the information in the modules listed below.

Scope and Scale of Missing and Abducted Children Issues:  How many children go missing or are abducted in the United States? Do the numbers justify a planned response from a multi-agency perspective? In this module the participants will be provided statistical data on missing and abducted children that will clearly support the need for not only a planned response, but a response that must be timely to safely recover a child at risk. By examining the numbers, the proper foundation will be provided in which to build a multi-agency response.

Society’s Expectations of Law Enforcement:  Never before has law enforcement’s efforts in its many facets of policing have come under such heavy scrutiny by the public at large. Accountability by an agency and its officers are at the forefront. In matters pertaining to missing or abducted children, the public demands that law enforcement bring to bear all available resources to safely recover a missing or abducted child. Anything less will be unacceptable.

Categories of Missing Children:   A child goes missing. A child is lost. A child has been abducted at the hands of a stranger. A child has been seduced on-line. A child decides to voluntarily leave home. What are the risks associated with the disappearance? What would be an appropriate response to locate the child? In this module, the participants will closely exam the dynamics of each category with an emphasis on risk and lethality associated with disappearance.

Multi-Disciplinary Response: A law enforcement agency is truly “just a phone call away” from being called to the task of safely recovering a missing or abducted child. The demand for its resources will be put to the test. Time and money will be expended as efforts are brought to bear to locate the child. In this module the participants will be provided with the investigative response and the distinct and separate search and recovery measures that must be done contemporaneously to recover the missing child.

Missing Children with Special Needs: Elopement! Wandering! Verbal or non-verbal. Containment! These terms are indeed common language in the world of special needs children. However, these terms are very foreign to law enforcement officers and emergency medical services personnel. Without a doubt, when a child with special needs goes missing, it will require a unique response from both law enforcement and emergency medical services personnel. In this module, the participants will take a critical look at the proclivities of these children and the necessary steps to be taken to safely recover these children. Through the employment of response and search and recovery guides, the participants will be provided with the necessary measures to be taken for a successful outcome.

Search and Rescue Measures:   Law enforcement agencies’ officers’ primarily response to and investigate incidents of missing or abducted children. This course provides for those “investigative” measures. However, there is a separate and distinct difference in an “investigative step” and a “search measure.”  This module will focus on the differentiation between the two measures and the need for collaboration and cooperation between those responding personnel. Additionally, the participants will be provided with specialized resources and field guides to enhance these efforts in recovering a missing child.

Agency Policy and Procedures on Missing and Abducted Children:  In this module, the participants will consider the need for their respective agency to have a departmental policy that will serve as the foundation from which the agency will respond and investigate incidents of missing and abducted children. Moreover, the participants will clearly see the need for an agency to provide standardized operating procedures for its personnel who are conducting that response. Using pre-incident planning, the participants will identify the need for a multi-disciplinary response and what resources are available to assist in that response.

Assessing Your Agency’s Response:  Through the use of work groups, the course will culminate with the participants identifying an agency’s strengths and weaknesses in its response to missing and abducted children incidents. By utilizing an agency self-assessment instrument, the participants will identify those strengths and weaknesses and then recommend strategies to fill in those response gaps.

Course Review and Conclusion:  An important component of this course of instruction will be a question-and-answer session between the participants and the instructor pertaining to what are the “next steps” to be taken to ensure the implementation of a comprehensive response to missing and abducted children.

Case Reviews:  Throughout the course of instruction, the participants will review cases, inclusive of actual missing and abducted children incidents to augment the lecture portion of this course. Additionally, multiple handouts and field guides will be provided to each participant.