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Phone alerts enlist neighbors’ help to find missing kids in Montana

If the telephone rings, pick it up. You could help locate a missing child.

Starting this week, a rapid call alert system could be phoning Montana homes with this recording: "This is an urgent message from Montana law enforcement. We are currently looking for a missing child in your area. The missing child’s name and description is …"

In one minute, 1,000 telephone alert calls like this can notify entire communities, giving a heads-up to potential witnesses of an abduction.

A nonprofit organization that helps law enforcement recover missing children, the A Child Is Missing Alert program lets people know a child has disappeared quickly – during the first critical minutes and hours.

On Tuesday, Marlin Price trained a roomful of Montana police officers and sheriff’s deputies, describing how the program works.

A retired police chief from Southlake, Texas, Price has supervised the investigations of eight stranger abductions of children, which resulted in seven murders.

Price said he believes an alert program like A Child Is Missing could have saved lives during his career.

The system won’t notify cell phones or unlisted numbers, but people can register those numbers by visiting http://www.achildismissing.org.

By TRISTAN SCOTT of the Missoulian

Full Story: http://missoulian.com/articles/2005/09/14/news/mtregional/news07.txt

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