Established in 1984, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® is the leading nonprofit organization in the U.S. working with law enforcement, families and the professionals who serve them on issues related to missing and sexually exploited children. As part of its Congressional authorization, NCMEC has created a unique public and private partnership to build a coordinated, national response to the problem of missing and sexually exploited children, establish a missing children hotline and serve as the national clearinghouse for information related to these issues.

Over the last 30 years, NCMEC's national toll-free hotline, 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678), has handled more than 3.9 million calls. With help from corporate partners, they have circulated billions of photos of missing children, and their employees have assisted law enforcement in the recovery of more than 196,000 missing children. They have trained more than 305,000 law enforcement officers, prosecutors and health care professionals at their Alexandria, Va. headquarters, their branch offices and online.

Since launching their first safety programs more than two decades ago, they have worked to put in place the policies, educational initiatives and public-private partnerships to prevent the victimization of children. Among other services, they rapidly deploy members of Team Adam, all retired law enforcement professionals, when children are critically missing to assist in the search and offer their free resources. They have access to many public databases and can help with case analysis and mapping. Their forensic artists create age-progressed photos and facial and skull reconstructions, and they provide assistance to help the U.S. marshals track more than 100,000 noncompliant sex offenders. A team of social services professionals provides emotional support to families and victims. Outreach teams work in communities to make child safety a daily concern. Their education experts develop free programming.

CertaScan is proud to be a sponsor of NCMEC’s new 10th edition of the book “For Healthcare Professionals; Guidelines on Prevention of and Response to Infant Abduction.” This edition can be reviewed at:

www.missingkids.org/theissues/infantabductions