NCJ Number
189296
Date Published
1999
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This guide and accompanying videotape seek to assist law enforcement agencies in developing media programs that ensure that missing children who are most at risk receive the maximum exposure for their case.
Abstract
The guide and videotape are products of a partnership among the National Sheriffs' Association, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, and the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, the U.S. Department of Justice. Approximately 2,100 children are reported missing to law enforcement agencies each day. In 40 percent of these cases, an "unknowing witness" has information crucial to the resolution of the investigation. The media can play a critical role in bringing these witnesses forward. The information booklet contains suggestions on using the media in investigative responses to high-risk child abductions and sample scripts for disseminating via the media information about an abduction. The videotape presents actor Dennis Franz of ABC Television's "NYPD Blue" in two public service announcements with descriptive data and photographs of two missing children. The announcements include instructions on reporting pertinent information.