Tuesday, February 7, 2006

Keeping track of kids: Attach an ID product to them

POLLY HIGGINS

Tucson Citizen

Statistics regarding missing children are downright scary.

In 2005, according to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, 664,659 children younger than 18 were reported as missing; the figure for last month alone was 58,081. In a 2002 study, the federal Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention reported 11.4 children out of every 1,000 went missing.

For these statistics, "missing"refers to all calls on runaway, lost or abducted children made to local police.

But parents don't need numbers to know how it feels to lose a child, even if the child just wanders off for a few seconds during a trip to the grocery store or mall.

Tucsonan Kelly Hanson, 33, recalls when one of her daughters got lost, and time stopped. She "was missing just for like two seconds, and you lose your breath," Hanson recalls. "It was awful."

Motivated by an impending family trip that involved air travel and trips to crowded amusement parks, Hanson purchased identification tags to affix to her children's shoes, rather than her tried-and-true method of tucking notes in them.

"It's hard to keep an eye on them at all times," says Hanson, who has an infant and two girls younger than 6 years old. "When you have three kids and they're running around when getting on the airplane, I just didn't want them to get lost."

Child identification products - some include DNA kits - have become popular (and available) in recent years. Hanson went with the Who's Shoes ID ($7.99), a hot pink band with room for the child's name and phone number. It fastens with Velcro to belt loops, shoes, wherever.

Hanson says she keeps the tags on her kids whenever they go in public.

"There are so many concerns a parent has," she says. "If you can alleviate at least one, then it's worth it."

Since the Who's Shoes tags were first offered in early 2004, 250,000 have been sold, with 95 percent for children. Many brands of similar products are available. Safe Shoes Child ID sells stick-on, one-time-use tags that go inside the shoe ($2.25 for 25) and My Precious Kid offers ID kits that include shoe tags, bracelets and other items ($15-$25).

"It's good for anybody at anytime to carry some kind of current ID," says Tucson police spokesman Sgt. Mark Robinson. "As far as missing kids, that depends on the age of the child. The younger the child, the more important."

Some children are too young to realize they are missing, he notes, so it's especially important for whoever finds the child to know how to contact the parents as soon as possible.

"Kids can be pretty slippery sometimes," Robinson says.

ON THE NET

Who's Shoes ID: www.whosshoesid.com

Safe Shoes Child ID: www.yoursafechild.com

My Precious Kid: www.mypreciouskid.com

Tucson Police: www.ci.tucson.az.us/police

National Center for Missing and Exploited Children: www.missingkids.com