Crime Scene

Parents can provide law enforcement with important information in case their child is kidnapped or missing on Sunday in Nanuet and then again on Sept. 29 in Suffern.

Below is the information from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services:

Parents and guardians will be able to obtain Operation SAFE CHILD cards for their children this month in Nanuet and Suffern. Representatives from the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services’ Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse will be at the following locations:

Sunday, Sept. 23: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the Town Clerk Mobile Office Day at the Nanuet Library, 149 Church St., Nanuet.
Saturday, Sept. 29: 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. at the 4th Annual Suffern Day at the Suffern Athletic Fields, Ramapo Avenue, Suffern.

Operation SAFE CHILD provides parents or legal guardians with a card that includes their child’s/children vital information: date of birth, gender, height, weight, eye color, along with a photograph and fingerprint images of both index fingers.

Parents or guardians also can choose to have that vital information stored in a DCJS database; storage in the database is entirely voluntary and requires written consent of the parent or legal guardian. The cards are free.

If DCJS receives a missing child report, the fingerprints of that child will be included in a special search file and compared against all incoming fingerprints submitted to the agency.

Time is the greatest enemy if a child goes missing. Having up-to-date photographs and detailed information about a child can greatly assist law enforcement officials as they respond to a child’s disappearance.

The New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services (DCJS) and its Missing and Exploited Children Clearinghouse partnered with the New York State Police, New York City Police Department, New York State Sheriffs’ Association and the New York State Association of Chiefs of Police to create Operation SAFE CHILD in 2005.

Since the program’s inception in July 2005 through July 2007, more than 165,000 children in New York State have been fingerprinted and photographed through Operation SAFE CHILD. More than 90 percent of families have requested that their children’s vital information be stored in the DCJS database.

DCJS partners with 38 law enforcement agencies across the state to offer Operation SAFE CHILD. For more information about Operation SAFE CHILD, call 1-800-FINDKID or visit www.operationsafechild.org