S.L. County gets new team to help find missing kids
Pat Reavy Deseret Morning News
The Amber Alert. A missing or endangered person advisory.
They're terms Utahns have become familiar with in recent years as law enforcement officers and state leaders look continually for improved ways to quickly locate missing or abducted children.
Now, in an effort to improve its own response, the Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office has joined with members of the district attorney's office in sending a group to Pennsylvania for special training sponsored by the U.S. Department of Justice on child abductions.
The result was the formation of a new team in the sheriff's office called the Child Abduction Response Team -- CART.
"We came away with a sense this was a lot of new material, stuff we haven't thought about before," Salt Lake County Sheriff's Lt. Paul Jaroscak said of the impact of the four-day conference.
Only a handful of other agencies in Utah have a CART team, including the Davis and Box Elder County Sheriff's offices, and the Utah Attorney General's Office.
"The Amber Alert is a great system. But what about everything else?" Attorney General Office's spokesman Paul Murphy asked. "CART is everything else."
Sheriff Jim Winder was so impressed with the group's information that he has made the CART team the secondary assignment for those who went to the conference. That means just like the SWAT team, for example, whenever the CART team is needed, the group will drop all other duties and respond to a missing child investigation.
In the past, investigators would call for additional resources as needed during a missing or abducted child case. What makes the CART team unique is it includes deputies and other employees from a variety of units within the department. The team consists of Sgt. Kris Ownby, head of the violent crimes unit, as well as patrol sergeants, a member of the family crimes unit, a dispatch supervisor and a representatives from the district attorney's office.
"We know what we're going to do ahead of time," Jaroscak said.
The importance of working as a group was highlighted during the workshop, Ownby said.
"These (missing children) events are overwhelming," he said. "One person can't handle everything."
Among some of the lessons learned was the proper way to do a neighborhood canvass when a child is missing, especially if residents became involved as has happened in some of the region's highest profile cases. A sheet outlining what vital information should be recorded at every house will now be given to search groups.
Investigators also now have "lead sheets," or pre-made documents that make it easier to record and track all leads. The CART team also learned how the policies and procedures of a community can help in an investigation and what federal and state resources are available to assist in recovering missing or abducted children.
Despite a couple of high profile incidents, Murphy said child abduction cases in Utah are rare. For that reason, there aren't a lot of investigators who are experienced, Murphy said.
"We really need a huge team of experts ready to go as quickly as possible," he said.
The new skills learned by the sheriff's CART team were put to use almost immediately. Earlier this month, a 15-year-old girl was kidnapped by her ex-boyfriend who reportedly was going to take her to Mexico. The sheriff's office made contact with the FBI, border patrol and state authorities in New Mexico where the girl was eventually found. Not only was the sheriff's office able to find her quickly, they now had the numbers of other resources available to return the girl to Utah quickly.
The CART team is preparing for more training in the near future.
"You can't do just one and call it good," Ownby said. "If you stop preparing, I think you're setting yourself up. You can never stop improving. You can always do what you do better."
Although the CART team is based in Salt Lake County, Jaroscak said Winder wouldn't hesitate to send the members into other jurisdictions if there is a request for assistance.
Murphy said the attorney general's office commended the sheriff's office for establishing a CART team and hopes other jurisdictions will follow.
"The training for CART is incredible," he said, "and will go a long way in helping us find abducted children." E-mail:
preavy@desnews.com Deseret Morning News (Salt Lake City)
November 23, 2007 Friday
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