Over 60,000 children go missing in India every year, activists point at police inaction:

Meenakshi Upreti, CNN-IBN

New Delhi: In the wake of the brutal Delhi gangrape and massive outpouring of public anger, the Justice Verma Committee was formed to look into amendments in criminal law. But it also highlighted one of the biggest problems of the country - the missing children of India. "A lakh kids go missing every year. The police must file an FIR, DM should maintain records," Justice JS Verma said.

Most missing children are victims of human trafficking and sexual violence, often with police connivance, observed the Justice Verma commission, citing the case of a minor girl who was trafficked from Jharkhand to Delhi, made to work for a year without pay and then trafficked again to Punjab.

Fortunately, the girl was rescued by an NGO, but thousands of children aren't as lucky. Kunwarjit, whose 11-year-old son went missing two years ago said nothing has been done to locate him. "Police hasn't done a thing to find him. I got a call from my son once but the police refused to act on it saying that it was a hoax call. Had they acted then, probably I would've had my son, but now I think I won't see him again," said the missing child's father.

Official records show 53,000 children were reported missing in India in 2010,59,000 missing in 2011, that is 1 child every 8 minutes. Activists claim the biggest problem is police inaction.

Delhi has the largest number of untraced children as 14 kids go missing from the city every day. Police claim most are cases of children running away willingly, rarely investigating allegations of child trafficking and sexual abuse.

Activist AR Chaurasia said, "The police shuts the case saying that the child ran away and came back on his own. My question is what did the child do for four years? Someone must have employed him, why don't they probe it?"

According to the NCRB 60,000 children go missing every year despite the fact that big states like Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra and Bihar, along with Punjab and Jharkhand, did not provide the data for missing children. Perhaps it is time the police take strict actions to ensure no child has to suffer the same misery as her.

Official records show 53,000 children were reported missing in India in 2010,

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Missing Children - To And From School:

Ask the Chief

Posted: Friday, Nov 9th, 2012
BY: Craig Dodd, Chief of Police

Dear Chief: With the recent disappearance and murder of 10 year old Jessica Ridgeway in Westminster, what can local parents do to help keep their children safe from predators?

Dear Concerned Citizen:

Listed below is information I gathered from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (www.ncmec.org). This is an excellent website I encourage all parents to visit and become familiar with.

An analysis by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), shows that approximately 35 percent of attempted abductions of children in the last 7 years occurred when the child was going to and from school or school-related activities. Some of the common lures used included providing the child a ride, offering candy/sweets, asking the child questions, offering money or using an animal as a ruse.  In 72 percent of incidents, the suspect was in a vehicle and approximately one-third of the attempted abductions occurred during 2 p.m. and 7 p.m., when children are least likely to be supervised.

NCMEC developed the following 10 safety tips

1. Teach your older children to always TAKE A FRIEND with them when walking or biking, and stay with a group while standing at the bus stop. Make sure they know which bus to ride.

2. Walk the route to and from school with your children, pointing out landmarks and safe places to go if they’re being followed or need help. Teach your children they should NEVER TAKE SHORTCUTS and always stay in well-lit areas. 

3. Even though there may be more safety in numbers, it is still not safe for younger children to walk to and from school, especially if they must take isolated routes anytime during the day or in darkness. Always provide supervision for your young children to help ensure their safe arrival to and from school. 

4. Teach your children that if anyone bothers them, makes them feel scared or uncomfortable, they should trust their feelings and immediately get away from that person. Teach them it is ok not to be polite and IT IS OK TO SAY NO.

5. Teach your children that if anyone tries to take them somewhere, they should RESIST by kicking and screaming, trying to run away and DRAWING ATTENTION – and saying “This person is trying to take me away” or “This person is not my father/mother.”

6. Teach your children NOT TO ACCEPT A RIDE from anyone unless you have said it is ok in that instance. If anyone follows them in a vehicle, they should turn around, go in the other direction, and run to a trusted adult who may help them.

7. Teach your children that grownups should NOT ASK CHILDREN FOR DIRECTIONS, they should ask other adults.

8. Teach your children to NEVER ACCEPT MONEY OR GIFTS from anyone unless you have told them it is ok to accept in each instance.

9. Make sure the school has current and accurate emergency contact information on file for your children and confirm names of those authorized to pick them up.

10. Always know where your children will be. Teach your children to always CHECK FIRST before changing their plans before or after school. Teach your children to never leave school with anyone unless they CHECK FIRST with you or another trusted adult, even if someone tells them it is an emergency. 

Finally, be cognizant that predators are drawn to areas children frequently gather or congregate. Place such as bus stops, parks, schools, and child friendly businesses are popular areas amongst child predators. Everyone is encouraged to notify the Alamosa Police Department immediately if you see someone who doesn’t seem to belong in areas where kids are present. It’s better to be safe than sorry; let’s keep our kids safe!


Craig Dodd, Chief of Police

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Should police treat missing child reports with more urgency?

Police need new tools and policies to deal with reports of missing children, Gazette guest columnist Lori Handrahan wrote Saturday.

“America now produces half of the world’s child porn,” Handrahan wrote. “The volume, with a new demand for livestreaming, requires a constant and voluminous supply of children. Most parents remain blissfully ignorant until their own child has been targeted.

“Child trafficking is America’s fastest growing crime, expanding 150 percent per year. … The child porn industry is estimated to yield profits as high as $20 billion per year and is rapidly overtaking drugs as the preferred moneymaker by organized crime syndicates. Handrahan wrote. “Children are being trafficked in staggering numbers for use in America’s child porn industry.”

Handrahan referenced the cases of Des Moines paperboy Johnny Gosch and the disappearance of Lyric Cook and Elizabeth Collins in Evansdale in her column. “When Johnny Gosch was taken, Iowa police had a less-than-stellar response,” she said. “Noreen worked to change the law. She argued: “The police don’t wait 72 hours to go after a bank robber, why would they wait to go after child abductors?” Police practice, however, hasn’t always measured up to the new law.

“Police must be given internal support to develop new policing practices that engage parents and people who are dedicating their lives to fighting child trafficking. We must set in motion a plan of action to win the war against the child porn industry that is trafficking too many American children.”

What do you think? Do police need new tools to deal with reports of missing children? Should those reports be treated with even more urgency?

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Police: Missing Oregon Woman's Cellphone Found

Police say children playing outside an apartment complex have found the cellphone of an Oregon woman who vanished three days ago under suspicious circumstances. (Oct. 19)

This department of motor vehicles image provided by the City of Gresham, Ore., shows Whitney Heichel. Police said Friday Oct. 19, 2012, that children playing outside an apartment complex have found the cellphone of Heichel, an Oregon woman who vanished three days ago under suspicious circumstances. Authorities said the phone will be examined Friday for clues about what happened to Heichel after she failed to show up for work Tuesday morning.(AP Photo/DMV via City of Gresham)

Police say children playing outside an apartment complex have found the cellphone of an Oregon woman who vanished three days ago under suspicious circumstances.

The cellphone contained text messages asking 21-year-old Whitney Heichel where she was and if she was OK, Gresham Police said Friday. Police didn't say who sent them or whether there was a response.

The children found the phone in a field that includes a network of walking trails, police Lt. Claudio Grandjean said.

Police were notified of the discovery of the cellphone late Thursday afternoon, and were examining it for clues about what happened to the Starbucks barista after she failed to show up for work Tuesday.

"We know we have a nugget in that phone," Grandjean said.

Heichel reportedly left her apartment for work at about 6:45 a.m. The drive to Starbucks takes less than five minutes.

Her husband, Clint, called police roughly three hours later. He told investigators he tried to reach Whitney multiple times after her boss alerted him that she never arrived for her 7 a.m. shift.

Grandjean said neither Clint Heichel nor anyone else has been identified as a person of interest in the case, and it's still uncertain whether Whitney Heichel is the victim of a crime.

"At this point nobody has been totally cleared, because we don't know exactly what we have," he said. "But if you're asking if he is a suspect _ no."

Police said Heichel's ATM card was used at a Troutdale gas station at 9:14 a.m. Two hours later, her sport utility vehicle was found in the Wal-Mart parking lot in Wood Village with the passenger side window smashed.

The field in which Heichel's phone was found is between the gas station and the Wal-Mart, giving investigators another venue to search.

Investigators planned to continue examining surveillance videos from Wal-Mart and other locations Friday, and wrap up their search of Larch Mountain, a remote, forested area east of Gresham where detectives believe the SUV was at some point Tuesday morning. Police have declined to say how they know it was there.

Heichel is described as standing 5-foot-2, weighing about 120 pounds with brown hair and brown eyes.

"When she's been missing for two or three hours, there's a lot of possible, logical explanations," Grandjean said. "When she's been missing for 36 or longer, it's concerning. And the possible explanations are more concerning, and possibly criminal."

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