May is National Missing Children’s Month and I would like to raise awareness of this in this week’s article.

The RadKIDS site (Officer Kevin Kosten, of the Niles Police Department, and I are instructors for this excellent program for children safety) has posted the following excerpt about this topic.

“You know how when you’re washing clothes and there’s a missing sock? How many times do you keep that sock, waiting for its pair to return, hoping it will soon appear so the sock pair will be complete? Have you ever worn just one sock? It feels weird, like there’s something missing, right?”

May is missing children’s month and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has chosen the missing sock theme to raise awareness this month of the weird and awkward feelings that go along with missing children’s issue.

It’s a way to make missing child issues something that everyone can relate to, not be afraid to deal with, and to make it more mainstream of an issue than something that “just happens to other people” according to their pitch.

So, during the month of May, we encourage yout to join us, RadKIDS-Children’s Safety Education (like them on Facebook) as we “rock one sock.”

We encourage you to take a “footsie” (aka: selfie of your foot), and post it on our Facebook page.

By doing this together we can show solidarity with families of missing children and raise awareness about missing children issues.

Encourage the whole family — pets included — to “rock one sock” and explain why you are taking pictures of their missing socks. It’s a perfect opportunity for you to talk to your children, and a good reason to review RadKIDS plans for escaping from danger.

We look forward to seeing “footsies” all over our RadKIDS Facebook page during the month of May.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children recently updated a study they conducted of over 9,000 abduction attempts.

The study’s conclusion provide information on the top five methods used during abduction attempts and four common re-occurring characteristics/themes in abduction attempts.

The top vie methods used during abduction attempts are:

1. Offering a ride

2. Offering sweets

3. Asking questions

4. Offering money

5. Offering, looking for, showing an “animal”

Please talk to everyone you can about this topic and reinforce safety plans with the children.

 

Any questions or comments about this topic, please call me at (269) 683-4411 or Kosten at (269) 683-1313. There will be safety plans available at the Niles Law Enforcement Complex.