NEWPORT NEWS, Va. – Government and law enforcement officials are working to increase child safety across the Commonwealth.
On Wednesday afternoon, Attorney General Jason Miyares handed out National Child ID Kits to Passage Middle School, and he said that all 6th, 7th and 8th graders at public schools across the Commonwealth will receive them.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew, York-Poquoson Sheriff Ron Montgomery, Poquoson Police Chief Stephen Keatts, Newport News Mayor Phillip Jones, and Newport News Vice Mayor Curtis Bethany also attended the event.
According to Miyares, the kits are designed to help law enforcement during the crucial first 24 hours of a missing child investigation.
The child ID kit is inside an envelope. There's a section parents fill out with information describing their child. Also included is an inkless solution for fingerprints. The card also has instructions for the child to suck on a corner of the card which will provide a DNA sample.
"To be clear, there’s no national database. There is no state database. This is not turned over to police. This is not turned over to the government," stated Miyares.
That is, unless the unimaginable happens and a child goes missing.
"It's almost like insurance. You pray to God you never need to use it but if you do and you have a missing child, you can immediately take it and turn it over to the police," Miyares added.
Passage Middle School is the first in Hampton Roads to receive these.
The intent relates to a segment aired on News 3 called “Have You Seen Me." They are designed to help find missing individuals.
In the Fall of 2022, News 3 investigators discovered that nearly 500 children were missing in Virginia; however, law enforcement had not submitted photos of nearly 200 of them to the public database of National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
Newport News Police Chief Steve Drew told News 3, it's not uncommon for families to only have a small photo or an outdated one.
"This speeds everything up, and speed and time affects everything," Drew said.
The National Child ID Program was created by football coaches in 1997 following the abduction and death of Amber Hagerman, the namesake for the Amber Alert. More than 75 million Child ID Kits have since been distributed nationally.
To order an ID kit, the Attorney General says you can contact his office through this link.
