Crime & Safety

Metro LEC Completes Drill to Be Certified Child Abduction Response Team

The purpose of the drill was for the Metro LEC to become one of only 19 nationally certified Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) in the country.

Written by Tamara Starr.

The Metropolitan Law Enforcement Council (Metro LEC), which comprises 43 towns, including Norton, and two sheriff departments, participated in a mock child abduction drill in Norwood on Wednesday.

The purpose of the drill is for the Metro LEC to become one of only 19 nationally certified Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) in the country.  

This would also make them the second northeastern state team to receive certification; Pennsylvania was the first.

The towns were given the scenario that a 13-year-old girl was suppose to be in school but was seen entering a car. Police then needed to find their own leads from calls and "witnesses" (that were set up by the agency) to help find the missing girl.

The Department of Justice brought in assessors to go through the current policies and procedures that are in place and to see how well the team can implement them. The assessors would then make a recommendation to the Department of Justice.

Alan Wolochuk was one of the assessors for the drill. He said he believes that CART is very important because many children are still missing.

"Annually 100 to 200 children are abducted," he said. "That's the primary group that CART is focused on and these situations are very time sensitive."

The Metro LEC spent close to four hours working together finding leads and eventually was able to find the missing girl.

"This community should be very proud of the law enforcement partnership that they have," Wolochuk said. "What I can tell your right now is that our recommendation will speak very highly of this team.

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