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METROLEC
offers added support in times of emergency
By Mike Berger
Citizen Staff
Police
officers are specifically trained to respond in emergency
situations, but there are rare occasions when an emergency
requires more equipment and more manpower than the local
department can handle.
Fortunately
for Canton and other local communities, there’s the Metropolitan
Law Enforcement Council, or METROLEC, a county-wide emergency
response team designed especially for instances like these. As a
consortium of 43 area police departments and law enforcement
agencies, METROLEC is available to assist any of the member
communities in the time of an emergency, and can offer support
from one or more of its seven highly-specialized units,
including the recently formed Child Abduction Response Team.
Currently,
eight Canton Police officers serve on the METROLEC team in one
capacity or another, and the newest member of that group,
Lieutenant Helena Findlen, serves as the response unit’s media
relations officer.
In addition
to the child abduction unit, which should enhance police
services for instances of lost and abducted children, METROLEC
operates six other units: Canine (K9), Computer Crimes, Crisis
Negotiation Team, Mobile Operations Motorcycle Unit, or MOP,
Regional Response Team, and Special Weapons and Tactics, more
commonly known as SWAT.
Included in
the Canton contingent are officers Scott Brown and Ed Lehan
(hostage negotiator) with SWAT, Chip Yeaton with Computer
Crimes, Donald Wolfe with MOP, and Bill Branca with the Regional
Response Team. Lt. Findlen also announced that Officer Brian
Wanless was added to the MOP unit.
Speaking on
the child abduction unit, Lt. Findlen said the METROLEC service
will connect any incident to state and federal units, including
the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, the
state’s Amber Alert Program, the METROLEC computer assistance
program, the canine unit, and the mobile response teams. On any
given incident, it could add up to 80 to 100 extra police
officers assisting on an investigation.
“In these
incidents, time is of the essence,” Findlen said. “The first
three hours of the initial response is so critical. It is sad
but true that in 41 percent of reported child abduction
incidents, the child is dead within one hour and in 91 percent
of these incidents, the child is dead within 24 hours.”
Findlen also
said that in 80 percent of child abduction incidents, the child
is found within one mile of the last reported sighting, and in
32 percent of the incidents, the child is within 200 feet of the
home.
Local police
response, she said, is important; but adding regional staff and
resources that are linked to a federal network can increase the
chances of finding abducted children.
August 14, 2008
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