The Role of Volunteers in the Search

If volunteers are used in the search, your law enforcement agency should still be responsible for managing the overall search effort. The extent to which volunteers are used in the search will depend on whether additional personnel -- beyond the military -- are needed. A volunteer search coordinator may be needed to organize the volunteer search effort.

Try to recruit established organizations, agencies, or groups -- rather than individual volunteers -- in the search. The use of affiliated groups makes it possible to quickly gather and organize a large number of volunteers. It also provides an inner chain of command, which makes communication and training easier, and provides an internal screening mechanism.

When volunteers are used, request that the volunteer staging area be located away from your home. There will be enough traffic, chaos, and confusion at your home without the added burden of volunteer search teams.

All volunteer searchers should be required to sign in each time they participate in a search activity. The sign-in procedure can be as simple as asking the volunteer searchers to show their driver's licenses and to list in a log book their names, addresses, and organizational affiliations, such as the Boy Scouts, local labor union, place of business, or local post of the Veterans of Foreign Wars. Keep all records for future reference.

A more elaborate sign-in procedure involves videotaping the sign-in and search efforts. Although it is impossible to videotape every search from start to finish, videotapes that show the searchers, the sign-in process, and the search locations can provide valuable information about possible clues and suspects. Some situations that seem innocent initially, such as the repeated appearance of an overly concerned searcher, may not be as innocent as they appear.

Request that law enforcement run background checks on persons volunteering for the search for prior criminal activity. In previous cases, thieves, pedophiles, and even the missing child's abductor have been known to join in a search. Background checks can prevent misguided people from volunteering and sometimes can provide information that helps law enforcement conduct the search.

Have your volunteer coordinator talk with law enforcement to determine whether additional equipment or personnel are needed to make the search quick and massive enough. Contact local businesses, missing children's organizations, NCMEC, your State missing children's clearinghouse, or other agencies to obtain the necessary supplies or tap into a network of people.

Further information about resources that can help with the search can be obtained by calling NCMEC. Established in 1984 as a private, nonprofit organization, NCMEC serves as a clearinghouse of information on missing and exploited children. It also provides technical assistance to both citizens and law enforcement agencies, distributes photographs and descriptions of missing children nationwide, and networks with nonprofit service providers and State clearinghouses on missing children. NCMEC can be contacted at its headquarters in Virginia or in one of its five branch offices in California, Florida, Kansas, New York, and South Carolina.

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