Local missing children team 1st in state go be certified by Amber Alert Program
If a child goes missing in York County, he or she will be tracked by the first response team in Pennsylvania to be certified by the U.S. Department of Justice Amber Alert Program.
Years in the making, the York County Child Abduction Response Effort, or CARE, was spearheaded by officials who recognized the need for a more organized reaction to missing children cases.
Members of the team received a Department of Justice Award before the York County Commissioners at their Wednesday meeting.
It's only the 12th team in the nation to be given the certification, which means the team has met the standards for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which will serve as a resource and offer assistance if a child is missing in York County, said York City Detective Dana Ward Jr., an organizer of the effort.
Pulling resources: More than 100 police officers, county officials, sheriff deputies, citizens and volunteers participated in the two-day October drill that garnered the certification, said CARE coordinator Alfie Ford.
Two deputies from the Sheriff's Department played "the bad guys," and members of the criminal justice program from York Technical Institute acted the roles of parents and witnesses, she said.
Dozens of county employees, police, FBI agents, U.S. marshals from Harrisburg and child welfare workers participated, carrying out their respective roles to show how they would respond if a child were actually missing, Ford said.
In this case, the "missing child" was the 10-year-old son of a sheriff's deputy.
Also participating was Lt. Lou, the York County Sheriff's Office's bloodhound.
Missing from park: During the drill, Department of Justice and National Center for Missing & Exploited Children staff reviewed the county team's policies and procedures to make sure they were in line with standards for certification, Ward said.
The second day of the mock abduction, the boy went missing at 6:40 a.m. He was walking through Dunedin Park in West Manchester Township when someone in the park witnessed a man abducting him. Team members were expected to follow the proce-
dures to lead to his safe return and the capture of his abductor, Shipley said.
The boy was found around 11 a.m. at the county's 4-H center, 771 Stoverstown Road. The abductor and the getaway driver were apprehended in a vacant lot on West Market Street.
Shipley said the successful mock abduction, in addition to leading to the certification, has given responders an advantage for a potential real-life scenario.
"I think because we spent all of this time preparing for an incident like this, we have a better chance than average of hopefully recovering a child," he said.
Ward said the certification effort was launched in 2006, after a 4-year-old York City boy was reported missing.
The child was found, safe, at the home of a friend, but officials realized "we needed a better response," he said.
The last major-response missing child case in York County was reported in Delta in 2008, when a boy with autism had wandered to a house where he had lived previously, he said.
--Reach Christina Kauffman at 505-5436, ckauffman@yorkdispatch.com, or follow her on Twitter at @dispatchbizwiz.
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