JUNEAU (WKOW) -- When a child goes missing, the world stops spinning for parents and guardians. Yet, the actions of loved ones and law enforcement in the first 48 hours of the child's disappearance can make a world of difference in finding them.
This is one reason Dodge County Sheriff Dale Schmidt said their office is working to expand access to child identification cards, which kind of look like small drivers license cards for parents that have all of their child's information on them.
"You have the child's full name, their address, the parent and guardian information, their height, their weight, their date of birth, their hair color, their eye color, scars, marks," Schmidt said. "If we can have that information at our fingertips quicker. It helps us to locate those children quicker."
To expand access to these life saving cards, Schmidt said his office is providing parents and guardians the opportunity to apply for Child IDs from the comfort of their home using the Dodge County Sheriff's Office app, which is compatible with both Apple and Android phones.
"This gives us the opportunity to make sure everybody has the opportunity to get their Child ID so that we can help hopefully resolve any child that goes missing quickly," Schmidt said.
In addition to being used by officers, Schmidt said the IDs could be used to send out an Amber Alert.
"If a child goes missing, they can come up to us and say my child went missing, here is all of their information on this Child ID," Schmidt said.
Beyond their convenience, Schmidt said the Child IDs are a testament to the ways searching for missing people have evolved over time from milk carton ads, to billboards, to social media and more.
"Technology is the way of the future," Schmidt said. "This is one more tool we have."
After you apply for your Child ID, Schmidt said you can pick it up at the Dodge County Sheriff's Office, or it can be mailed or delivered to your home by officers.
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