Operation Safe Kids!

  • Published
  • By Senior Airman Tiffany DeNault
  • 21st Space Wing Public Affairs
PETERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Colo. --  In Colorado, there are currently 38 missing children, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children.

Air Force Office of Special Investigators 8th Field Investigations Squadron, partnered with U.S. Secret Service, conducted a community outreach event known as Operation Safe Kids at the RP Lee Youth Center here, Nov. 17-20.

"Operation Safe Kids is a program by the U.S. Secret Service that provides parents identification kits," said Special Agent Taj Mathew, AFOSI 8th Field Investigations Squadron criminal investigator. "The stand-alone document provides the children's basic information, photo and fingerprints, that way if the child goes missing the parents can provide this to the law enforcement agencies."

The event used leading technology to produce a biographical document containing a child's photograph along with digitized, inkless fingerprints and other vital identification information. Parents receive the document that can later be reproduced immediately for mass distribution to local, state and federal law enforcement agencies. This system saves valuable time when there is no time to spare.

"This could be the lifesaving package that with the fingerprint and photograph may actually bring the child home quickly and safe, versus months and months of searching," said Lt. Col. Laurinda Reifsteck, AFOSI 8th Field Investigations Squadron commander.

"The most important thing is to have discussions with our children and make sure they know what to do if they are ever in that situation, know how to respond, and to memorize their address and phone number," said Reifsteck. "It is important to arm our children with that information as early as possible because the most important thing is to be able to go home, sit down with our families, and have dinner every night."

The event was started in 1995, pursuant to the passage of the Omnibus Crime Bill. In it, the Forensic Services Division of the U.S. Secret Service was mandated by Congress to provide forensic support to assist all law enforcement agencies within the United States, as well as the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, in matters involving missing and exploited children. The Secret Service Forensic Services Division readily embarked upon developing a program dedicated to capturing important forensic information that could be used in cases of missing children.

Upon request, Operation Safe Kids can be brought to any Secret Service Field Office. Generally requests come from schools, Boys & Girls Clubs and police departments.

"OSI working with law enforcement agencies at local, state and federal level is a top priority. In partnership with those agencies, we try to get out into the community with crime prevention campaigns like this one," Reifsteck said.

Operation Safe Kids is one of several events AFOSI 8th Field Investigations Squadron participates in addition to its criminal investigations, counterintelligence and cybercrimes mission. AFOSI offers world class training in forensics, interrogations, crime scene processing, firearms and much more in more than 40 overseas locations and in all 50 states.

For information about AFOSI and its recruitment process, contact AFOSI 8th Field Investigations Squadron at 556-4347 or visit www.osi.af.mil.

 

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