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| Knoxville Goes High-Tech to Search for Missing |
A new program in use by the Knoxville Police Department can aid in the efforts to locate missing persons minutes after a report was filed.
The Knoxville Police Department, last month, formalized an agreement with the A Child Is Missing Alert Program, which uses high tech methods to search local areas for missing children, elderly and missing people who may be mentally or physically challenged or disabled.
Knoxville Police Chief Ron Poyner says once a report of a missing person is filed, the Knoxville Police make a call into the headquarters of the A Child Is Missing Alert Program. He says they instantly bring up area maps through GPS satellite pictures.
Poyner tells WGIL the group then makes multiple calls in just a minute's time to notify residents of the missing person.
"They place these calls at a rate of a thousand a minute asking for assistance giving the name, and the last seen, the last known whereabouts," Poyner said. "They ask these people to go out and check their property, their vehicles, their outlying buildings, and look and see if maybe this missing person is in that area."
Poyner says missing people is not a reoccurring problem in Knoxville, but he says officers had been trained in how to use the service before it was implemented when a possible attempted child abduction occurred early in September at Mable Woolsey Elementary School.
Poyner says they haven't had a situation to use the program yet, but says it's like having an insurance policy, saying it's nice to have and hope they will never have to use it.
If you would like to sign up your cell phone to be notified of missing persons in Knoxville, CLICK HERE. |
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| 10 07 09 by Newsroom |
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