The Herald, Sharon, Pa.

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November 14, 2007

Device provides instant info about missing kids

By Matt Snyder

PERRY TOWNSHIP — When a child is abducted, there’s a very narrow window to find them before the chance of getting them back alive drops way off, said Sharon policeman William Gregg.

Gregg was at the Jubilee Daycare in Clarks Mills United Methodist Church on Wednesday snapping pictures and recording vital information for his other job as a regional representative for AMBER Stick.

The AMBER Stick is a portable computer memory drive that hooks into a computer and can be carried on a keychain.

The password-protected, encrypted information can be passed quickly over to police if a child is abducted, Gregg said. It has space for vital statistics, medical conditions, and photos of the child.

The best time window for recovering an abducted child is within three hours, but more often police average 3 1/2 hours to get the word out. Having information at the ready can cut that time down, Gregg said. “After that three hours, chances of survival are greatly decreased.”

A missing flyer can be printed directly from the memory stick, Gregg said. The device is named after the Amber Alert System, which helps find abducted children.

Amber Alerts are an emergency broadcast system partnering police with media outlets like radio and television, sounded off when a child is abducted and is in life-threatening danger, said the system’s Web site.

Named in honor of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old Arlington, Texas girl who was kidnapped while riding her bike in 1996 and then brutally murdered, the system has been used 127 times in the U.S. so far this year, said Gregg.

Children lined up for snapshots in the daycare on Wednesday, smiling or pouting, some young enough they had to be held up. The 74-child daycare purchased their own device, which can hold up to 100 files. Gregg said several parents bought one, too.

He first encountered the AMBER Stick while working on a crime prevention task force in Sharon, which he is no longer a part of.

Gregg said he’s also looking for a sponsor to help pay for the device in all the county’s school districts. There are 22,090 students in the county, he said, and it would cost about $630,000. The sticks sell for $30 apiece.

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