Orange County Among The First To Offer Digital Safety Program For Children
Posted: 1:22 pm EST January 24, 2008
ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- The Orange County Sheriff's Office said they respond to about 2,500 missing persons cases a year. They said many of them involve children which is one reason why they teamed up with the Orange County School District to launch a new way of identifying missing kids.It happens too often in Central Florida. A child can be kidnapped in the blink of an eye. Thursday morning, 3rd graders from Ventura Elementary got a free identification kit that is sure to help law enforcement if and when they are reported missing."It's a new program so we haven't had the opportunity to test it yet. But certainly it has a lot of wonderful features that will be helpful," said Sgt. John Allen of the Orange County Sheriff's Office.The Safe Assured ID kit includes a photo of the child, 10 digital fingerprints, a voice recording clip and other personal information stored on an encrypted mini-cd. Patricia Gonzalez, 8, explained why the new method is so important."When I get lost or missing you can send those to the cops and get information," the third grade Gonazlez said.The valuable information is accessible only to law enforcement officials locally and nationally. The Orange County Sheriff's Office is the only provider in Florida to offer the state-of-the-art system to families.Although Ivonne Olmeda's son got a free ID kit, she thinks more should be done to protect children."Parents have to put more attention to their kids and their kids need to put more attention to their parents, too. Follow the rules and listen to the people who care for them," said Olmeda.The free kits will not be offered to all students in Orange County. Children's Safety Village, the non-profit that is working with the sheriff's office said there isn't enough funding to do that. However, for $10, parents can get the kit at the Mall at Millenia on Saturday morning.
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