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CNN Live Saturday
What Can Parents Do to Protect Their Children?
Aired July 27, 2002 - 12:05 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
RENAY SAN MIGUEL, CNN ANCHOR: The recent child abduction cases are putting the spotlight on the protection of our children. How can parents and police help secure their safety? We turn now to Mike Brooks for some answers. He is CNN's law enforcement analyst and joins us live on the set. Thanks for coming in on the weekend. We appreciate it.
I have got to ask you this. The media is in kind of a unique situation. We report these abductions because authorities want us to. They want us to get the information out, a picture, a description of both the child and, if possible, a suspect. We also have to follow these through to their outcomes, and those sometimes -- it's not always good news. I'm wondering if you believe that the media reporting of this spate of kidnappings is inspiring other crimes?
MIKE BROOKS, CNN LAW ENFORCEMENT ANALYST: I don't think it is. If you look, go back and look at Samantha Runnion, during her eulogy the other day, her mother, the sheriff of Orange County kept thanking -- I've never heard, it was unprecedented -- kept thanking the support of the volunteers and kept thanking the media for keeping it out in the spotlight.
When you go back and look at Chandra Levy when she was missing, even though she was an adult, her parents were trying to keep it in the spotlight in front of the media to try to keep the word out there. It's the same thing with the Smart family right now. They want to keep it out in the media, so if any information at all can be gleaned from that and anyone sees something, it's, you know, it's out there.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. These recent cases appear to be more brazen to you than maybe ones you've worked in the past? Is that just a misperception, or is there an unusual number of cases that have happened in such a short period of time.
BROOKS: I believe the Center for Missing and Exploited Children say that they haven't seen anything like this in a long time.
SAN MIGUEL: Really?
BROOKS: Yeah. Just the brazenness of snatching the children off the street. Most of the time when there are child kidnappings, abductions, it's usually a parent custody battle. There is also, you know, each day there is 2,000, approximately 2,000 people reported missing across the country to police, and the majority of them, 85 to 89 percent of those are juveniles under the age of 18.
Usually they're found within three to five hours, and if not, it's usually a custody battle. We just saw in Philadelphia, though, the little girl there who was abducted and was duct-taped and she chewed her way through the duct tape. We saw that -- the reason for her kidnapping was apparently it was perceived that her family had come into some money, so there was money involved in that, and so that's another reason for some child abductions.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. The parents -- when they hear cases about, you know, they're snatched off the street or in some cases right out of the bedroom, I mean, it just has to strike terror in their hearts. What can parents do now, you know, with these kinds of brazen situations?
BROOKS: You just have to -- you can't let your kids out of your sight. Parents have to be proactive. You know, we've put a lot of attention in the past into the schools, on the DARE programs, the anti-drug programs...
SAN MIGUEL: Stranger Danger, that kind of thing.
BROOKS: Stranger Danger. That's what I used to teach when I was a young cop. That's what I used to go out and teach bicycle safety, pedestrian safety and stranger, you know, stranger equals danger. But we have to go back and start in the preschool, going before the kids even get into kindergarten. Parents have to get involved. Police have to set up programs to teach the children -- the parents how to role-play with their children to get the word across to their children, because we're looking at these children recently, 5 years old, you know, 9 years old, 14. So these are preschool and school aged kids, but we have to start in preschool, role-playing with our kids, telling them that stranger equals danger.
SAN MIGUEL: What is your thought about the Amber alert program that has been in place for the last couple years, where the media just gets all the information out as quickly as possible. Some of those -- some of these jurisdictions where some of these kidnappings have happened are now instituting those Amber alert programs. You know, do you believe that they do do some good here?
BROOKS: I do. And the more information initially when the child becomes missing, the more information that the media can get out, the law enforcement can get out to the public and to the volunteers that are out there looking for the kids, the better. It gives them more to work with, it gives them more to work on. You know, we've also seen programs in the past with law enforcement agencies fingerprinting and taking DNA of children -- that's all well and good, but I think we have to be more proactive than reactive.
SAN MIGUEL: OK. We'll see how things will develop with this case and others. Mike Brooks, our CNN law enforcement analyst, thanks so much for your time. I do appreciate you joining us.
BROOKS: Good to be here, Renay.
SAN MIGUEL: Thank you.
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