The Bergen County Sheriff’s Office received new printers that will enable them to print and circulate photographs of missing or abducted children from the AMBER Alert Safety Center last week in a presentation at the Paramus Park Mall.
The printers were distributed at the ceremony on April 24. The event also celebrated the opening of an AMBER Alert Safety Center kiosk at the mall. Within the next 60 days, the safety centers will also open a 2,000-square-foot store in the mall, Kai D. Patterson, the president and CEO of AMBER Alerts, said.
The store and kiosks are the first of their kind and will enable parents or guardians with children under 18 to create an AMBER-ready profile for free and store the information on their cell phone. In the event of a possible abduction, parents would be able to have police instantly transmit an AMBER alert from the phone to authorities and neighbors, Patterson said. Parents and guardians will also receive a free informational CD and a program that will enable them to load and lock their phone to ensure that only they have access to their child’s information.
"It’s a lot safer than carrying the information in a wallet, which can easily be stolen and leave children vulnerable," Patterson, who is a former systems programmer for Bell Applications, said last Thursday.
A second feature of the Amber Alerts kiosks will be the Wireless AMBER Alert Program that will enable individuals that do not have children under 18 to receive free wireless AMBER Alerts of other missing children. Those individuals may also receive a $10,000 reward with the program, he said.
Patterson said the idea for the new programs came to him from his own experiences and those of his close friends and family. When he was a child, a man attempted to abduct him, but slipped on some ice, enabling Patterson to break free, he said. A few days later, another child was abducted by the same assailant, but was not fortunate enough to get away.
According to Patterson, the experience stuck with him long into adulthood. After working with the National Football League for some time, a co-worker’s son was also abducted, bringing back painful memories.
"It took so long in the past to gather and distribute information on a missing child," he said. "This technology is groundbreaking because it cuts down on the time it takes to identify the child in danger. Our goal is to help to create a ‘missing child resistant America.’"
According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 2,208 children are reported missing each day in the United States. In addition, 354,000 children are reported abducted. Nearly half of all children abducted by strangers are killed.
The special printers presented to the borough and county police departments will enable officers to print poster images of the children immediately and post them in nearby communities. They will be hooked up immediately to laptops available in patrol cars.
"The immediacy of information will help immensely in the ongoing quest to keep our children safe," Bergen County Sheriff Leo P. McGuire said Thursday. "The more people we can distribute the information to, the more we can help them."
Paramus Mayor James Tedesco also stressed how important the development would be to shoppers and residents of the borough.
"We want to ensure that people coming to Paramus are safe," he said. "I am honored to have this facility in Paramus."
More information on the AMBER Alerts Safety Centers is available at www.amberready.com.
