Every day children go missing, and while most stories have a good ending, the most “crucial” way to ensure their safety is to find them quickly. 

 

With this in mind, Durham Police have come up with a simple yet extremely clever way to find kids who are missing – by asking the child’s schools to send a text to all parents if contacted by police.

 

As soon as the child is located, a second text will be sent out to let everyone know. The idea for the system came about after a child went missing in 2014, and after all available officers were deployed, the youngster returned home oblivious – she had made friends with another child at school which her parents didn’t know.

 

Explaining how it works, PSCO Marie Garfoot, who came up with the idea, said: “It could be a case of a child being abducted, in that respect we need to get the message out very quickly. Or it could be that a child has gone to play by the river. You just don’t know. You just want to make sure that you’re safeguarding the child and getting them back home quickly.”

 

“We’ve got the education authority, the schools on board so that’s brilliant. You never know, if it’s something that’s successful in the County Durham area then maybe in the future it could go national.”

 

SHARE if you'd like to see this system set up in your kid's school. 

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