KlaasKids Foundation has fingerprinted and photographed more than one 1,000,000 children with our Print-a-Thon service free of charge and without databasing personal or private information
Since 1994 or non-profit has advocated for laws that protect the innocent, punish the guilty and prevent crime against children.
The KlaasKids Search Center has served over 1500 families of missing persons. We have conducted over 500 searches and trained more than 1600 professional search and rescue volunteers.
KlaasKids Foundation was established in 1994 to give meaning to the death of my twelve-year-old daughter kidnap and murder victim Polly Hannah Klaas and to create a legacy in her name that would be protective of children for generations to come. The Foundation’s mission is to stop crimes against children.
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called upon members of the 1139th Military Police Company of the Missouri National Guard to assist in the search for Lisa Irwin, who has been missing from her Kansas City home since October 4. Twenty-five members of the unit have joined police in ground searches for 10-month-old baby Lisa. This is a very good sign as the military can contribute many disciplines and resources to a Search and Rescue operation.
I first became aware of the military’s potential impact on missing persons when my daughter Polly was kidnapped in 1993, during Fleet Week in San Francisco. This is the time of year when the U.S. Navy, including the Blue Angels, descends upon the San Francisco Bay to show off. During an appeal for search parties, many sailors and other local military personnel volunteered their services. It soon became apparent that many of these highly organized soldiers had expert training in Search and Rescue operations.
The U.S. military is the best-equipped and trained search and secure force in the world, especially when force size is considered;
Units are constantly training in field deployment;
They utilize techniques and the most advanced communication, sensing and surveillance electronics available in the world;
The military can rapidly deploy to the most inaccessible areas;
They have mobile secure communication;
The military has night vision and sensing availability that is unsurpassed. They “own the night”;
The armed forces have a proven chain of command that is non-jurisdictional.
Will baby Lisa be found? It is still too early to say, but it is a big world and she is a little baby. However, the military’s involvement in her case is definitely an asset.
KlaasKids strives to remain on the cutting edge of child safety. To that end, on July 23, 2011 we introduced a revolutionary concept in child abduction and exploitation response. The Polly Center, located in Pensacola, Florida is a proactive missing child resource center. It was created to provide a preemptive response network to serve families of missing persons. This regional resource center will also provide abuse prevention programs for children and services for victims of exploitation.
Responding to a missing person case is akin to communities responding to natural disasters. When a 911 call is placed reporting a missing person, the response must happen very quickly as time lost can be critical and even life threatening. So it is with natural disasters: communities must respond from the ground up. Currently, most communities have an emergency disaster response plan which consists of pre-planning and the identification of resources necessary to respond to a give disaster. The Polly Center will mirror that approach as it applies to missing person and human trafficking cases.
The concept behind the Polly Center is based on events that happened and surrounded my daughter Polly’s case in 1993. The entire community of Petaluma: business; churches; individuals; fraternal organizations all came together to assist in building the search effort for Polly. For the past 18-years KlaasKids has been responding to communities that are grappling with predatory or highly suspicious missing child cases. However, each time that we respond we have to invent the wheel all over again by locating relevant resources. With the Polly Center much of that work will already be in place and resources will be put on alert to respond as necessary.
A preemptive response plan includes creating key partnerships with law enforcement, businesses, civic organizations and churches willing to participate during the search for a missing person or willing to assist in the rescue and recovery of victims of exploitation these partnerships allow the Polly Center to create a response framework prior to a missing response or rescue attempt.
Several agreements have been established with key organizations. California based BeyondMissing will provide parents with a parent flyer tool. They will be able to upload pictures, fill out form fields and quickly create a professional English or Spanish language missing child flyer that can be shared via fax or email. The Florida Coalition against Human Trafficking will provide assistance in identifying and placing victims. The Gulf Coast Kids House, a Children’s Advocacy Center, will provide services to child abuse victims. Area Search and Rescue teams will provide professional services in the search for missing persons
The Polly Center is the brainchild of Brad Dennis, the KlaasKids Foundation National Director of Search Operations. Brad, who has more than 25-years of experience in search and rescue and crisis management, has managed search efforts for more than 180-missing and exploited children throughout the United States, including the community assisted search effort following Polly’s 1993 kidnapping. Most volunteer search protocols currently being used were developed by Brad during the search for Polly.
If KlaasKids finds success with the Pensacola based Polly Center we intend to replicate the template throughout the United States. We know that such an ambitious vision will be difficult to implement and will take time, but we believe that our children are worth it. Don’t you?
Missouri Governor Jay Nixon has called upon members of the 1139th Military Police Company of the Missouri National Guard to assist in the search for Lisa Irwin, who has been missing from her Kansas City home since October 4. Twenty-five members of the unit have joined police in ground searches for 10-month-old baby Lisa. This is a very good sign as the military can contribute many disciplines and resources to a Search and Rescue operation.