On Tuesday, Aug. 21, the Association of Public Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International’s 78th Annual Conference & Expo attendees had the opportunity to attend a session titled Effective Use of NCIC to Find Missing Children. Presented by Peter Bellmio, senior policy adviser to the president at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., and Gigi Smith, second vice president of APCO International, the session focused on the critical role NCIC can play in recovering missing children.

Included in the discussion was a new initiative by NCMEC and APCO. NCMEC and APCO have been partners since 2007 in an effort to strengthen the role of calltakers and dispatches in helping prevent child abduction, recover missing children faster and protect children from sexual exploitation. The effort is called Child Centered 9-1-1: The Missing Kids Readiness Project. As part of that project, APCO and NCMEC will be working on ways to help PSAPs make better use of NCIC to find missing children.

NCMEC, AMBER Alert and the Department of Justice have developed an NCIC Reference Guide for Entering Missing Children. APCO is going to promote use of the reference guide among PSAPs and work with NCMEC to help define policies and practices that would make use of NCIC as an asset for child protection.

PSAPs can visit www.missingkids.com/911 to obtain information on how to become a NCMEC PSAP Partner by adopting national standards on handling cases of missing and sexually exploited children. NCMEC, through its partners at AMBER Alert, provides a free online course for calltakers and dispatchers that is one of the requirements to become a NCMEC PSAP Partner. NCMEC also has a booth in the exhibit hall so, if you are at the conference, stop by, see the staff, and talk with representatives from PSAPs that already have become NCMEC Partners. There is no more important mission for PSAPs than protecting children.

Details on education sessions and other speakers are available at www.apco2012.org.

About APCO International
APCO International is the world’s largest organization of public safety communications professionals. It serves the needs of public safety communications practitioners worldwide—and the welfare of the general public as a whole—by providing complete expertise, professional development, technical assistance, advocacy and outreach. www.apcointl.org