The Child Alert Foundation (CAF) is a tax exempt 501(c)(3) non-profit organization dedicated to assisting local and federal law enforcement agencies in the recovery of abducted or missing children. Currently, any abduction alert is a manual process, which is limited and time consuming. The efforts to apprehend the abductor are splintered and impeded by competing jurisdictions.

The CAF software, Abduction Central Alert © (ACA), is a fully automated system which identifies all participating agencies within that crucial 100-mile radius of the verified abduction site, without human intervention. This is done IMMEDIATELY upon the completion of the information being entered by the participating police or 911 operators. All law agencies, faxes, pagers, support groups, TV and news media who are to be notified within the 100 mile radius are done so at the discretion of each participating police department. All information must be verified as coming from the reporting police or sheriff’s department. The police are in complete control of all agencies or persons to be notified.

CAF is building a network of police and sheriff departments, linked to TV and radio stations and support organizations via the Internet, to alert the public within minutes of the report of a missing child. The most crucial area is within the 100 mile radius of the report. With media saturation of this area, the public is notified that an abduction has taken place and they may provide information of any sightings. An abductor can be spotted and apprehended, and the child returned to safety. The importance of concentrating on the 100-mile radius is the easy crossing of state lines and international borders. Child abduction is an international problem that the ACA software will also be capable of addressing. A child abducted in Maine or North Dakota may be taken into Canada and a child taken in Texas or California may be abducted into Mexico.

CAF is the only organization of it’s kind that addresses the immediacy of the problem of child abduction through state-of-the-art computer technology. Speed is of the essence in child recovery.

At a demonstration of ACA© system in Springfield, MO, abduction information was entered by a police officer and when the submit key was pressed, it took 56 seconds for the information to be transmitted from Springfield, MO to Dushore, PA, and back to Springfield, MO where the phones began ringing for the pager, the faxes began printing and the picture of a child entered was transmitted along with all other numbers to be notified. The audience was stunned. Rogersville, Missouri is the first police station in the nation to become a participant in protecting our nation’s children.

Additional information about the Child Alert Foundation is available through their web site at www.childalert.org .

Child Alert Foundation
Box 357, Route 87 South
Dushore, Pa 18614
vince@childalert.org
570-928-8422