Sheriff’s Dept. joins program to help locate missing children

By TARA JENNINGSLedger Staff Writer

The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department has joined a program that provides additional needed resources for law enforcement in the first few hours after a person is reported missing.

Local police officers and 9-1-1 emergency dispatchers will be trained soon to dispatch information to the “A Child is Missing” (ACIM) nonprofit organization.

ACIM works with Amber Alert but is not a replacement for the nationwide missing person network. ACIM can be used when the Amber Alert does not qualify. In addition to missing children, ACIM can also be used to help find first-time runaways and people with disabilities as well as Alzheimer’s patients.

An officer or 9-1-1 dispatcher contacts ACIM with pertinent information about the missing person, including a description of clothes worn and the time and place the person was last seen.

An ACIM technician records an individual alert message, which is phoned out to homes and businesses in the area where the person was last seen. A call area can be expanded if needed. ACIM can dispatch 1,000 calls in 60 seconds.

According to information found on the organization’s Web site, a child goes missing about every 40 seconds.

The program, which is free to law enforcement, has assisted in the safe recovery of 91 children and people who are elderly or have disabilities in the past 39 months. There is a 98 percent listening rate when the ACIM call asking for assistance is answered by residents or businesses in the area the missing person was last seen.

The Fort Lauderdale nonprofit organization was founded in 1996.

For more information about the program, visit:

www.achildismissing.org.