By Haywood Talcove
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is asking the public to “Rock One Sock” during the month of May to show support for missing and exploited children and their families. The #RockOneSock campaign is simple:
- Wear one sock and take a photo or video of it;
- Share your photo or video via social media using the hashtag #RockOneSock; and
- Care by donating to support the work of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and challenge your friends, colleagues and family to do the same.
Thursday, May 25, the nation recognizes National Missing Children’s Day to bring attention to the problem of missing and exploited children. Here are three reasons for police offices to support this great cause and to #RockOneSock:
1. It’s the easiest thing you’ll do all day to help the cause of missing and exploited children.
Unfortunately, we all know too well the dark journey that may lie ahead for a missing child and his or her family. When I hear about a missing child, my stomach turns. Missing children are not news stories or cases, they are innocent victims; lives that potentially hang in the balance while the law enforcement community searches for them.
When we hear about a missing child or a child that has been the victim of child trafficking or other sexual exploitation, we hug our own children a little tighter before they go to bed. Often, there is very little we can do to help. But on May 25, we can take the time to “Rock One Sock” to support the cause of missing children and their families.
2. It’s a simple way to give back to NCMEC.
When NCMEC was founded more than 33 years ago, missing children were not entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s crime database. And, there was no statewide or national effort among law enforcement to investigate missing children. Thanks to NCMEC, that has all changed. The organization’s stated mission is “to serve as a resource center for law enforcement, families and the public to help find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation and prevent child victimization.” In 2016 alone, they assisted law enforcement and families with more than 20,500 cases of missing children.
NCMEC provides free training, technical assistance and resources to law enforcement who investigate missing children and child sexual exploitation. In doing so, they host classroom training at their Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center, as well as online courses through its NCMEC University Online. As of January 2017, NCMEC had trained more than 331,000 law enforcement, criminal/juvenile justice and private security professionals.
Law enforcement knows that NCMEC is a critical resource for support. Now, law enforcement has an opportunity to support NCMEC. Whether through donations, rocking one sock (#rockonesock) or just spreading the word about the problem of missing and exploited children, law enforcement can help.
3. You can share the message to missing children and their families that you will never give up hope.
NCMEC’s organizational vision “is a nation free from child abduction and sexual exploitation of children.” They never give up hope – hope that missing children will return, and hope that their vision will be realized. Like you, they will do everything within their power and the bounds of the law to help bring home missing children.
Hope is essential for the families of the missing, the missing children themselves and even the law enforcement community working to find the missing children. Without hope, there is only loss. Hope is what makes everyone – the families, the missing children, law enforcement and the people working at NCMEC get up in the morning and keep going. By rocking one sock, you can stand with NCMEC and give the gift of hope.
So, stand up for missing children and their families. Get your precinct together or do it on your own. Wear one sock, take a photo of yourself wearing it and post it through your social media channel of choice using the hashtag #RockOneSock.
Then, challenge someone else to do it. It’s something simple you can do to help missing children, to help NCMEC and to provide hope to all those impacted when a child goes missing or is sexually exploited. Maybe we can all get a little closer to a nation free from child abduction and sexual exploitation.
About the author
Haywood “Woody” Talcove is CEO, LexisNexis Special Services Inc. and CEO, Government, LexisNexis Risk Solutions. A go-to source for government agencies and the media on how government can use identity intelligence to find fraud, criminals and safeguard law enforcement. He has served as a member of the Board of Directors for the Center for Missing & Exploited Children for the last four years.