SALISBURY, Md.- The Maryland Department of State Police and the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives and the NOBLE Maryland Chapter has 15,000 National Child ID Program kits for the public to pick up at any Maryland State Police Barrack.
The kit has sections for parents to add their child’s finger prints, DNA, contact information and even their physicians information.
Lieutenant John Revel with Maryland State Police at the Salisbury Barrack says this information is priceless.
"There is an applicator here to finger print the child, it gives you instructions on here. There is a DNA portion here where they put their mouth on there, leave on there for maybe 10 seconds to kind of get saliva soaked in there," said Revel. "If the child happens to go missing, we go over there, we can ask them if they have one of these on hand, if they do, it's a gold mine to us."
Revel says when parents are in a state of panic, basic information can be challenging to gather.
"They are scrambling through the records, they are trying to find things, right here all they have to do is hand it to us. You know the last thing a parent does or wants to do when their child is missing or lost is think about things like this. They just want to get out there and look for their kid," said Revel.
Detective John Marton-Rollins with the Fruitland Police Department says he hopes people in Maryland take advantage of this program.
"Getting a good description of that person out is imperative. And when we have to take the time to gather all of that information, that's time that a person can get further away from us," said Marton-Rollins. "Someone who may be in a panic might not be able to think straight, has it all ready and they can give it to us."
The National ID Kits are available any time at any Maryland State Police Barrack.