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WASHINGTON – A panicked mother reports the abduction of her daughter. Authorities rush to the scene, where they quickly question the mother for facts about the child and the abduction. Then, using the family’s home computer, police enter the information into a new website. Within minutes, key details are e-mailed and faxed to every law enforcement organization in the area, along with participating truck stops, motels and restaurants along the perpetrator’s possible escape routes. When the police are finished, the mother uses the same website to design a flyer with a photo and description of the child. A short time later, she’s at the local copy shop running off thousands of leaflets.

This is the kind of technology Marc Klaas, father of child murder victim Polly Klaas, wishes existed when his daughter was abducted eight years ago. Even today, no such system is in operation, but that’s something Klaas and U.S. Rep. Mark Green are working to change. Their efforts got a major boost Wednesday as the U.S. House approved a bill containing $900,000 to transform their idea from vision to reality.

"This marks a major victory in our ongoing fight against child abduction," Green said. "Usually, when a child goes missing, investigators have a tiny window of time in which to operate. Once that window has closed, the chances of finding an abducted child safe and alive are very slim. It’s not an exaggeration to say that every second counts. We’re fortunate today to have incredibly powerful, lightning fast technology at our disposal. This effort harnesses that technology and puts it to use helping to find missing kids before it’s too late. I’m excited about the project and very glad we were finally able to lock down this important startup money."

The project, known as "Beyond Missing," was originally conceived by Klaas. Klaas said he believes "speed and scope" will be the keys to the project’s success.

"Beyond Missing gives families and law enforcement the two most important things they need to effectively deal with a missing child case: speed and scope," Klaas said. "It gives them the ability to get out information about a child at light speed to a nearly unlimited scope of people who can provide leads. For example, the police can show up at a victim’s home and minutes later put out a detailed alert not just to their fellow officers, but also to participating businesses in a wide radius. Those are tremendous advantages – advantages I wish I had in the hours following Polly’s abduction.

Klaas said the website, http://www.beyondmissing.com/, although still in its startup phase, had already encountered success. The flyer-design portion of the site is up and running, and helped a mother assemble leaflets with information about her missing daughter earlier this year. The girl saw one of the flyers and called home.

The funding for Beyond Missing was contained in this year’s bill appropriating funds for the Departments of Commerce, Justice and State. Green said the bill also contained money to help fund Northeast Wisconsin Technical College’s "Tactical House" project, which helps train law enforcement officers for operations from drug raids to hostage situations.

The funding now moves forward from the House, where it is expected to be approved quickly by the Senate and signed into law by President Bush.

 

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