New Facility to Back Up the National Emergency Child Locator Center Opens in South Florida

News provided by

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

May 03, 2010, 09:00 ET

Target Funds New Center Operated by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

Law Enforcement Training is Scheduled for May 12

ALEXANDRIA, Va., May 3 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children®(NCMEC) today announced that a new back-up facility for their National Emergency Child Locator Center has opened in Lake Park, Florida. The new south Florida facility was made possible through a generous donation from Target, who serves as founding sponsor of the facility.

The new Lake Park facility was created to provide back-up capability to the primary National Emergency Child Locator Center which is located at NCMEC headquarters in Alexandria, VA. Construction is completed, NCMEC staff are in place and training for law enforcement volunteers who will help staff the new facility is underway. A session to train members of the organization's Project Alert program is scheduled for May 12 at the new facility in Lake Park, Florida.

"We are deeply grateful to Target, a company that cares about families and communities," said Ernie Allen, President and CEO of NCMEC. "Thanks to Target's leadership and generosity, we are now much better prepared to act swiftly and effectively to reunite families separated by disasters."

During the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2006, NCMEC was asked to help recover 5,192 children who were dislocated from their parents. All children were reunited with their families. The U.S. Congress subsequently established NCMEC as the National Emergency Child Locator Center to help reunify families displaced by any future major disaster in the U.S. Since it was created, the Center was activated in 2007 during the California wildfires and in 2008 following hurricanes Gustave and Ike.

"At Target, we are dedicated to providing basic needs to families in crisis by supporting disaster preparedness and relief and recovery efforts," said Laysha Ward, president, community relations, Target. "We are proud to have worked with NCMEC in expanding the abilities of NCMEC and the National Emergency Child Locator Center and helping to reunite families who become separated."

The new facility is located at the NCMEC branch office in Lake Park, Florida and interfaces in real-time with the main facility in Alexandria. It will be staffed by full-time NCMEC employees located in Lake Park. However, when the facility is activated, staffing will be supplemented by hand-picked retired law enforcement professionals that participate in the organization's Project ALERT program.

Project ALERT stands for America's Law Enforcement Retiree Team. It is a nationwide program of volunteers made up of more than 155 retired local, sate, and federal law-enforcement officers who donate their time to NCMEC. These seasoned investigators provide specialized investigative skills, critical resources and serve as additional personnel to local law enforcement to help resolve long-term, missing child cases. They are also available to provide training on the aspects of complex types of cases and as public speakers to make presentations about child-safety issues and prevention strategies.

The National Emergency Child Locator Center is only activated after a declaration by the President of the United States of a national disaster and upon request by FEMA's National Emergency Family Registry.

About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization. Since it was established by Congress in 1984, the organization has operated the toll-free 24-hour national missing children's hotline which has handled more than 2,447,000 calls. It has assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 148,400 children. The organization's CyberTipline has handled more than 836,800 reports of child sexual exploitation and its Child Victim Identification Program has reviewed and analyzed more than 33,093,400 pornography images and videos. The organization works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. To learn more about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com.

About Target

Minneapolis-based Target Corporation (NYSE: TGT) serves guests at 1,740 stores in 49 states nationwide and at Target.com. Target is committed to providing a fun and convenient shopping experience with access to unique and highly differentiated products at affordable prices. Since 1946, the corporation has given 5 percent of its income through community grants and programs like Take Charge of Education. Today, that giving equals more than $3 million a week.

SOURCE National Center for Missing & Exploited Children