Norwood to Host Mock Child Abduction Drill

(The following is a release forwarded from the Sudbury Police Department.)

Metro LEC is excited to announce a proactive initiative encompassing all units within the consortium. 

On Wednesday, July 24th beginning at 7 am in the Town of Norwood, a “mock” child abduction drill will occur.  Officers from the cities, towns and Sheriff’s departments that are a part of the Metro LEC organization will mobilize and respond to Norwood to investigate a report of a missing child.  Upon successful completion of the drill, Metro LEC will become one of only 19 nationally certified Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) in the country and only the second northeastern state team to receive this honor (Pennsylvania was the first).   

As Abraham Lincoln once said, “the time to sharpen the sword is not during battle”.  Preparedness in law enforcement is critical in any type of incident, but never more so than in the case of a missing child. It is the key component to having a successful resolution to the case.  For that reason, this proactive drill is intended to simulate a terrifying and emotionally draining scenario for anyone involved  and make our response as real life as possible.  It will offer us the welcome opportunity to work with our state and federal law enforcement partners-as they assist in a force multiplier role -collaborating in amber alert notification, crime scene services and technological expertise.  It will ensure that every law enforcement official responding to this “call out” understands their function in the process, prior to a real life event occurring.   By realizing this vision, we will be able to eliminate precious time loss and allocate the necessary personnel and resources to the immediate goal at hand-locating the missing child. 

We are acutely aware of the toll that a real life incident of this magnitude can take on a community and its first responders.  However, no one feels the pain more intensely than the family of the innocent victim.  We owe it to our jurisdictions, our residents and most importantly, our children, to make sure that we prepare ourselves as much as possible to give them the best chance for a positive outcome. 

However, we cannot do that alone-the media are an essential part of the response team in the case of child abductions.  You work as our community partners- getting the information out there in rapid succession.  As you are agonizingly aware, the more time that elapses in these kinds of cases, the more leads diminish and the chances that the child will be found alive dissipates.

As our valued partner, Metro LEC would formally like to invite you to cover this event from start to finish.  There will be a media pre event Q & A session from 10 am -11 am on Monday, July 22nd at the Canton Police Department (1492 Washington Street).

If you are unable to attend that event, we urge you to send a representative from your organization on the day of the actual “mock” drill-Wednesday July 24th.   Please stage at the Shaw’s market across from the Norwood PD on Nahatan St., no later than 6:30 am. You will have access to film the staged abduction, conduct media conferences and follow the incident through to the final outcome.  Immediately following the conclusion of the drill, a press event to debrief the whole scenario will be held at the Norwood Police Department from 12p-2p, to include all agency representatives and major participants.