1. Child Abduction Response Team (CART)

2. Why Have a Pre-planned Response?
58,200 children are victims of non-family abductions each year
100 – 200 of those victims are stereotypical kidnappings
Approximately ½ of these victims are sexually assaulted during the commission of the crime
Statistics from NISMART II

3. When a Child is Killed 49% are murdered in less than 1 hour
74% are murdered within 3 hours
91% are murdered within 24 days
99% are murdered within 7 days
Statistics from the Washington State Attorney General’s Report on Missing Child Homicides

4. It is likely that the classic non-family abduction will require a multi-agency response Are We Ready?

5. Child Abduction Response Team
A formalized multi-agency response to abducted, missing and endangered children

6. What is the Purpose of CART?
To establish a multi-agency child abduction team that will respond to abducted, missing and endangered child cases in a dynamic, timely and efficient manner

7. Inter-Agency Approach
Shared financial and personnel resources
Provides expert resources to augment organized investigative efforts
Assures the victim family and community that all resources are utilized for the successful recovery of the child

8. Policy Issues to Be Addressed
Liability
CART resources and use of equipment
Mutual aid/concurrent jurisdiction
Officer injury
Use of force/litigation
Pursuits

9. Policy Issues to Be Addressed (cont.)
Overtime
Command structure
Briefing of agency heads/confidentiality
Media releases
CART deployment length of time resources are made available

10. Policy Issues
Once policy issues are resolved then they need to be documented
Tools for solidifying documentation include:
Memorandums of Understanding
Protocols
SOPs/Department Directives or General Orders
Letters of Agreement

11. Team Responsibilities Phase I
Develop a response plan
Response criteria
Incident command structure
Lead agency designation/CART Coordinator
Assignments

12. Team Responsibilities Phase II
Develop a best practice policy regarding missing/abducted children for recommendation to member agencies

13. Other Responsibilities
Seek training for team members
Develop exercises for team training and testing
Respond to missing and abducted child cases as set forth by the response plan
Develop an after-action report on full scale responses to be presented to the agency heads of the member agencies

14. Responsibilities (cont.)
Develop and maintain a response manual for use by investigative members of the team
Develop and maintain a resource manual to ensure immediate availability of resources

15. Proven Model
Training programs from January through  December 2017 yielded the following:
279 active teams representing 48 states, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Canada
When deployed, CART has proven to be a successful investigative tool in the safe recovery of children
CART training programs from January December 2017, have reached 5232 team members representing 48 US states/territories, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Canada • As of January 2018, there are 279 active teams representing 48 US states and territories; and two international teams

16. How Do We Bring CART to Our Community?
Leadership: Ensure Chief Executive Officer (CEO) commitment
Establish a Steering/Oversight committee
Meet regularly until the team is established
Designate a team leader who will work diligently to see the process through
Support the efforts of team members

17. Advice from Successful CART Programs
Be flexible
Choose motivated and committed people
Do not give up working on your plan
Do not reinvent the wheel
Check your ego at the door
Do not put all your eggs in one basket
Educate

18. Lessons Learned Keep the focus on finding the child
Have a plan and use the plan
Realize it is a work in progress
Do not delay in deploying your team

19. AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program
Contact Information
AMBER Alert Training and
Technical Assistance Program
A U.S. Department of Justice Initiative
Administered through the
National Criminal Justice Training Center of
Fox Valley Technical College
Phone: AMBER ( )
Website: