1. Child Abduction Response Team (CART)

2. Why Have a Pre-Planned Response?

3. Statistics from NISMART II
Facts and Figures
58,200 children are victims of non-family abductions each year
100 – 200 of those victims are stereotypical kidnappings
Approximately ½ of these victims are sexually assaulted during the commission of the crime
Statistics from NISMART II

4. When a Child is Killed 49% are murdered in less than 1 hour
74% are murdered within 3 hours
91% are murdered within 24 days
99% are murdered within 7 days
Statistics from the Washington State Attorney General’s Report on Missing Child Homicides

5. It is likely that the classic non-family abduction will require a multi-agency response

6. Child Abduction Response Team
A formalized multi-agency response to abducted, missing and endangered children

7. What is the Purpose of CART?
To establish a multi-agency child abduction team that will respond to abducted, missing and endangered child cases in a timely and efficient manner

8. Inter-Agency Approach
Shared financial and personnel resources
Provides expert resources to augment organized investigative efforts
Assures the victim family and community that all resources are utilized for the successful recovery of the child

9. Policy Issues to be Addressed
Overtime
Command structure
Briefing of agency heads/confidentiality
Media releases
CART deployment length of time resources are made available
Liability
CART resources and use of equipment
Mutual Aid/concurrent jurisdiction
Officer injury
Use of force/litigation
Pursuits
Sarah Lunde where doc was briefing supervisors about evidence collected on scene and other investigative issues and that information ended up with secretary briefing governor 9

10. Policy Issues
Once policy issues are resolved then they need to be documented
Tools for solidifying documentation include:
Memorandums of Understanding
Protocols
SOPs/Department Directives or General Orders
Letters of Agreement

11. Team Responsibilities Phase I
Develop a response plan
Response criteria
Incident command structure
Lead agency designation/CART Coordinator
Assignments

12. Team Responsibilities Phase II
Develop a best practice policy regarding missing / abducted children for recommendation to member agencies

13. Other Responsibilities
Seek training for team members
Develop exercises for team training and testing
Respond to missing and abducted child cases as set forth by the response plan
Develop an after-action report on full scale responses to be presented to the agency heads of the member agencies

14. Responsibilities (cont.)
Develop and maintain a response manual for use by investigative members of the team
Develop and maintain a resource manual to ensure immediate availability of resources

15. Proven Model
Training programs from January 2006 through July yielded the following:
3792 team members trained representing 45 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Canada
102 Operationally Ready teams
CART deployment has proven successful in the safe recovery of children
CART model recipient of 2005 IACP Choice Point Award

16. IACP Choice Point Award
“One of the greatest challenges law enforcement faces is responding to the report of a missing child. But the activation of available officers, coordination across multiple jurisdictions, and securing of necessary expertise can often eclipse the assets of any one department,” said then IACP President Joe Estey, chief of the White River Junction, VT, Police Department.

17. How Do We Bring CART To Our Community
Leadership: Ensure Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Commitment
Establish a Steering/Oversight Committee
Meet regularly until the Team is established
Designate a Team Leader who will work diligently to see the process through
Support the efforts of Team Members

18. Advice From Successful CART Programs
Be flexible
Choose motivated and committed people
Do not give up working on your plan
Do not reinvent the wheel
Check your ego at the door
Do not put all your eggs in one basket
Educate

19. Lessons Learned Keep the focus on finding the child
Have a plan and use the plan
Realize it is a work in progress
Do not delay in deploying your team

20. Contact Information
AMBER Alert Training and
Technical Assistance Program
A U.S. D.O.J. Initiative
Fox Valley Technical College
Phone: (877) 71-AMBER