The Habersham County Central Communications (E-911) Office has renewed its certification for the Missing Kids Program, a program that streamlines emergency communication when a child’s life may be at risk.
The Missing Kids Readiness Program, developed by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), promotes best practices for responding to emergency calls relating to missing, abducted and sexually exploited children.
In the past year, Habersham County Central Communications initiated 82 calls for lost, injured, missing, runaway and non-family abductions of children. The communications office received a total of 17 state-initiated calls this year: four Amber Alerts, 10 Levi Alerts and one Mattie’s Alert.
Habersham County E-911 Assistant Director Melanie Bellinger and E-911 Director Lynn Smith attended a seminar at the Jimmy Ryce Law Enforcement Training Center in Virginia with the NCMEC and created a policy to bring back to Habersham County’s E-911 office. All staff members have received training in this policy to protect Habersham’s missing children.
“By demonstrating remarkable leadership, and making this commitment of training and preparedness, the Habersham County Central Communications is communicating to its citizens and families [that] protecting the lives and safety of their children is a top priority,” the county said in a press release. “Armed with the information, knowledge and operational resources gained through meeting the program criteria, the Habersham County Central Communications continues to be positioned to respond more quickly, comprehensively, and effectively when a child’s life may be at stake.”
Bellinger wants Habersham citizens to know that they are committed to protecting children and that when they receive a call about a missing, abducted or exploited child, every question they ask is important.
“When we receive a call for a missing child or missing elderly person there is a series of questions that we are required to obtain for information to activate the alerting system,” Bellinger says. “These questions do not delay the initial response. While obtaining the information from the caller, first responders are en route to begin the search process. Any and all information is crucial to the safe return of the missing person as it gets passed on to the responding units. Please answer all of the questions. The more information that we can get out to the responding unit the outcome normally results in a positive nature.”
