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DOJ guide helps parents, police work together to find a missing child, Part 4

By Scott Buhrmaster
For The Street Survival Newsline

Final installment of a 4-part series (View Part 1)

In this final installment of our special Newsline report on handling missing children cases, we share information designed for law enforcement use ONLY.

In an extensive guide published by the FBI titled, “Child Abduction Response Plan: An Investigative Guide,” officers and their agencies are given detailed instructions on how to conduct a missing child investigation, from receipt of the initial call that a child is missing to effectively coordinating and conducting searches, strategies for conducting interviews with witnesses and suspects, gathering thorough information about the missing child, and handling media attention generated by the case.

In this transmission, we will share a number of the tips given in the guide for handling the case in the early stages, from receiving the complaint to conducting a search. At the end of this article, we will tell you how you can obtain a complete copy of this FBI guide and another extensive law enforcement guide published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

From the FBI’s, “Child Abduction Response Plan: An Investigative Guide:" Upon receipt of the complaint

• Obtain the basic facts as to who, what, where, when, and how, including a brief description of the victim, suspect, and any vehicles involved.

• Search police records for any previous contacts with the complainant and victim, any similar activities, and any police activity within the reported or adjacent area or at the complainant’s and victim’s address.

• Broadcast all critical details, including notification to other precincts or patrols within the department and other surrounding local, county, and state agencies. Consider National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS) for regional and even national notification. Maintain a sensitivity to the media’s ability to monitor these transmissions and use appropriate discretion relative to specific crime scene details.

Upon arrival at the scene

• Verify the accuracy of complaint information, description of victim, circumstances at time of disappearance, health, and custody status of child.

• Ask what has already been done to locate the missing child. Note the nature of these efforts and complainant’s disposition (frantic, concerned, no emotion). CAUTION: Be careful about putting too much weight on interpretation of reactions of individuals to the crisis because people react differently. Also take care not to minimize the complaint simply because of a perceived dysfunction within the family.

• Conduct search of the immediate area to verify disappearance, especially areas where a child may hide.

• Locate any witness(es) to the incident, to include the complainant and the last person to have had contact with the victim. Separate the witness, interview same, and compare details to known information. Be especially sensitive to the interviews of child witnesses in attempts to obtain original and accurate information.

• Identify the exact place the victim was last seen and secure the scene until it can be searched and examined for possible evidence. (Is this area within the victim’s comfort zone...an area where the child regularly visits or plays; if not, why was the child there?)

• Identify and secure the child’s comfort zones as potential crime scenes or sources or relevant evidence.

• Determine the time frame between when the victim was last seen and when discovered missing. This “window of opportunity” is crucial to establish. Realize that persons responsible for the child may attempt to reduce the window of opportunity. Keep the window of opportunity in mind when conducting interviews of possible witnesses.

• Evaluate all information gathered, noting any discrepancies and conflicting information, especially in regard to the window of opportunity. Immediately resolve differences through verification. Confirm everything.

• Based upon the information developed, make an initial assessment as to the type of incident: abduction, parental kidnapping, runaway, or possibly a false report to conceal some other type of incident (homicide, accidental death, or other problem).

• If not enough information is developed to formulate an assessment as to the type of incident, treat the disappearance as an abduction, until information is developed to suggest otherwise. It is better to err on the side of caution.

• Update local and regional NLETS broadcast; ensure information about the missing child is entered into NCIC’s Missing Person File.

If the child is not immediately located (Abduction, possible abduction, lost, or missing child)

• Request additional personnel to assist with the investigation, including supervisory personnel who can assign a case detective/agent to coordinate all phases of investigation.

• As soon as possible, notify the local FBI Office. Assistance and resources will be offered to further develop the nature of the incident.

• Establish a command center separate from the crime scene and/or victim’s residence.

• Brief responding units with complete details known and update communications as to new pertinent information.

• Assign personnel, including a Team Leader, to initiate search.

• Assign personnel, including a Team Leader, to secure and process crime scene.

• Assign personnel, including Team Leader, to establish and maintain liaison with the victim’s family and initiate victimology.

• Assign personnel, including a Team Leader, to initiate a neighborhood canvass.

• Assign a person to coordinate press releases, if appropriate, to include photographs of the victim.

• Assign a person to document all personnel on site and their assignments. This person should collect and review all information received from each team.

• Review all developed information and immediately resolve any contradictory or inconclusive information.

• Determine what additional resources are needed and assign personnel to contact and obtain resources.

• Ensure all information on the victim is accurately entered and updated into NCIC Missing Person File.

• Have and be ready to immediately implement a contingency plan for a kidnapping for ransom abduction.

Conducting searches

The major players and their responsibilities:

1. Crime Scene Team Leader

Assumes overall control and responsibility for the crime scene search procedure. Ensures scene is properly processed. Assigns team members to specific tasks.

2. Photographer

Prepares photographic log with accompanying sketch. Photographs entire scene BEFORE evidence is collected. Photographs each item of evidence in place. Photographs the crime scene AFTER processing.

3. Diagram Preparer

Sketches overall crime scene, noting location of each item of recovered evidence. Designates each crime scene location for facilitation of evidence location.

4. Locating Agent/Officer

Responsible for search of a specific area of the crime scene as dictated by the Team Leader. When evidence is found, ensures it is photographed in place and then advises the Seizing Agent.

5. Seizing Agent/Officer

Takes custody of located evidence, initializing and dating same. Prepares evidence recovery log, which notes who initially located the evidence and the exact location where found.

Searching the victim’s residence/room:

• Process for physical evidence, to include latent fingerprints, fibers, forensic-type evidence and weapons.

• Attempt to obtain samples of victim’s hair (hairbrushes, hooded clothing, hats, pillowcases).

• Attempt to obtain unwashed clothing of the victim for possible forensic evidence.

• If known fingerprints of the victim are unavailable, attempt to develop latents from items known to have been handled by the victim.

• Obtain elimination fingerprints of anyone known to have access to that area.

• Obtain an item containing odor of victim to serve as canine’s scent material. Consult your search team leader on how to collect the item without contaminating it with your scent.

Searching abduction and recovery sites:

• Seal off and restrict access, logging identities of all persons who enter the area.

• Process for physical evidence, to include latent fingerprints, forensic-type evidence, weapons.

Subject search:

• Obtain known samples of blood, saliva, head and pubic hairs, penile swabs, fingernail scraping, dental impressions, and photographs.

• Obtain fingerprints (offender’s major case prints and presence of victim’s latent prints).

• Process the offender’s residence, storage areas, vehicles (including rentals and any other vehicles the offender had access to), and trash containers for physical evidence, to include latent fingerprints, forensic-type evidence, and weapons.

• Search employment site, to include lockers, vehicles, and computers.

• Seize any available computer logs, diaries, articles of interest (newspaper clippings, etc.), videotapes, photographs and negatives, address books, receipts, credit card receipts and records, telephone billings, gasoline receipts, and cash withdrawals.

• Search for clothing, especially any matching eyewitness accounts of what the offender was wearing at the time of the incident (any evidence of laundering clothes or disposal of same).

• Check for recent sale, repairs, and/or maintenance of vehicles, including recent cleaning of interior and exterior.

• Consider additional forensic technology that may not have been available during initial crime scene search; alternate light source, electrostatic lifts, laser technology, etc.

General area search:

The general area search includes any wooded or uninhabited areas not far from the victim’s residence or area last seen, bodies of water, areas that attract curious children (vacant buildings, shafts, holes, underpasses, neighbors’ backyards), neighborhood hangouts, abandoned vehicles, and secluded areas the offender(s) could have used to assault and/or dispose of the victim.

Personnel assisting with the neighborhood investigation should ask the persons they contact for consent to search their residence/business for the victim. This will save time and resources by eliminating a second contact of these persons by a separate team of personnel, such as the search team.

Wooded and uninhibited areas:

• Use search and rescue teams with a designated Team Leader (brief prior to search).

• Use a systematic approach.

• Initiate ground search teams AFTER canine units have completed their search.

• Use high ground or aerial resources to oversee the search area.

• Contact industrial trash companies and coordinate with them for searches of dumpsters, information about trash collection, etc.

• Consider local resources such as military for personnel and equipment.

• Log and document progress of search and any recovered evidence.

• Maintain a complete log of all search participants.

2 extensive guides available to law enforcement

“Child Abduction Response Plan: An Investigative Guide,” published by the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

To obtain a copy of this guide, contact the Coordinator of the Crimes Against Children section of your local FBI Field Office.

“Missing and Abducted Children: A Law Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management,” published by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

To obtain a copy of this guide, contact the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at (800) 843-5678 or write them at 2101 Wilson Blvd., Ste. 550, Arlington, VA 22201-3077. The first copy is free. Each additional copy is $10.

Go to Part 1

Scott Buhrmaster is Vice President of Training and Editorial for Police1.com, which was awarded the “Quill & Badge Award” for Excellence in Journalism by the International Association of Police Unions. He is also the Publisher of Police Marksman magazine and has served as Contributing Editor for Law Officer magazine. He has been a member of the law enforcement training community since 1989, when he began work as Director of Research with Calibre Press, Inc., producers of The Street Survival Seminar.

Throughout his tenure at Calibre, Buhrmaster was involved with virtually every aspect of the company’s officer survival training efforts, from the planning, creation and marketing of the organization’s award-winning textbooks and videos to developing and securing training content for the Seminar. In 1995, he was named Director of the Calibre Press Street Survival Newsline®, an Internet-based officer survival training service he helped found. In less than five years, Newsline readership grew from 25 officers to more than 250,000 in 26 countries, making it one of the most popular training vehicles in law enforcement history. His efforts now focus on providing training and information to the nearly 400,000 officers worldwide who visit Police1.com every month.

Prior to joining Police1, Buhrmaster, who also serves on the National Advisory Board of the Force Science Research Center and stands as an active member of the American Society for Law Enforcement Training and the International Law Enforcement Educators and Trainers Association, was President of The Buhrmaster Consulting Group, an international consulting practice for the law enforcement training sector and the publishing industry. Scott may be reached at buhrmastergroup@comcast.net.

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