I can understand the need to train, but using ex-sex offenders who have not done anything wrong, and who are just trying to live their lives in your training, is wrong, and possibly something the ACLU should look into. Why not use actors, like you do for the other people?
02/23/2012
By Dale White
SARASOTA - They were just pretending.
But the roughly 200 investigators from throughout Southwest Florida who participated in a mock child abduction drill at the Sarasota County Fairgrounds on Thursday regarded the exercise with life-and-death seriousness.
"Within three hours of a child abduction, there's a 76 percent chance that they are murdered," Florida Department of Law Enforcement Special Agent Daniel Warren said to add urgency to the training exercise.
When an abduction is reported, the FDLE must "assemble as many resources as quickly as possible" and "make sure the right hand knows what the left hand is doing," Warren said.
That is why occasional exercises help the FDLE and the U.S. Department of Justice assess how well they and local law enforcement agencies are prepared.
Thursday's five-hour drill compelled investigators to not just scour the fairgrounds for evidence but hone their interviewing skills. Here is a rundown of what happened:
7 a.m. Sarasota Police pretend to get calls from witnesses who saw a man pull a girl into a black sedan outside the Boys and Girls Club on Ringling Boulevard. They give similar descriptions of the kidnapper, the girl and the vehicle. In reality, a plainclothes officer and the daughter of another officer hide in the fairgrounds.
7:30 a.m. Sarasota Police send a mock request to FDLE to issue a statewide Amber Alert. They say contents of a book bag reveal the girl's identity and they are soon able to get a photo of her.
7:40 a.m. A recorded phone message from the FDLE goes to investigators across Southwest Florida; more than 200 members of law enforcement agencies in 10 counties arrive as part of FDLE's Child Abduction Response Team.
8:30 a.m. Numerous agency heads meet at the fairgrounds to plan their next move. Coordinators register investigators and divide them into teams with differing duties. Some will search the area; others will canvass the neighborhood or interview the family; some check on registered sex offenders nearby.
- Not pretend sex offenders, like all the other actors, I assume, but real ones!
8:50 a.m. FDLE briefs investigators gathered inside Robarts Arena on details of the mock abduction case. In a North Port Police mobile unit, crime analysts sort through information from authorities and the public — looking for a possible common thread or clues.
A Sarasota County Sheriff's mobile unit serves as the command post. Inside, investigators also monitor live video feeds from a helicopter searching the area.
9 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. Investigators interview the girl's family, asking about the girl's friends and details on family members. They take hair samples and other materials that could carry the girl's DNA.
Other investigators interview owners or employees at nearby businesses, asking if they saw anything suspicious and whether they have surveillance cameras.
- Are these real employees and businesses?
Other investigators contact five sex offenders who live nearby, demanding a detailed account of the offenders' activities and noting their physical descriptions.
- This is just wrong! Not fake sex offenders, but real ones? How many people can tell me exactly what they did last week? Probably 0%, unless you are paranoid and keep records of everything.
All interviewers follow FDLE questionnaires to ensure they ask all vital questions and report, in writing, all the answers. Those reports are relayed to crime analysts who compare details.
9:15 a.m. Two supervisors conduct a media news conference, asking for help to get the word out about the girl and descriptions of her and the abductor.
9:25 a.m. FDLE crime technicians go to a field where a search team found a sandal and a plastic grocery bag with unknown contents. They photograph and confiscate each as possible evidence.
11:30 a.m. Bloodhounds pick up the girl's scent. The trail leads investigators into dense woods, where they soon find her locked in a storage shed. She describes her supposed kidnapper and remembers he has a peace sign tattoo on his right wrist. Paramedics put the girl in an ambulance.
11:45 a.m. At the command post, investigators and analysts find an interview report about a sex offender with a peace sign tattoo on his right wrist.
- In REALITY, most abductions are not by known or unknown sex offenders, but family members.
12:10 p.m. The suspect is arrested.
Similar exercises are conducted about every two years by FDLE in Southwest Florida, to keep agencies fresh on techniques and investigative methods.
"Within three hours of a child abduction, there's a 76 percent chance that they are murdered,"
ReplyDeleteThis is false or at best misleading. Of the children that were abducted/killed in that study, there was a 76 percent chance they were murdered within three hours.
So a true sentence would be this one: " In around 75% of all murder-abductions, the child is believed to be dead within 3-6 hours of the abduction."
http://www.keepyourchildsafe.org/abduction-murder.asp