Public Request, US State Department, Office of Children's Issues.
Subject1: ‘Prevent Departure Program’.
Subject2: State Dept/OCI/ LBP Liason Position
Subject3: State Dept/OCI/ Left Behind Military Parent Liason Position
To whom it may concern,
Add as #10 'Prevent Departure Program' to State Department/Child Abduction/Prevention Tools area of website. Currently 9 prevention tools exist.
http://travel.state.gov/abduction/prevention/prevention/prevention_2873.htmlRequests/Suggestions:
1- Outline specific criteria required to qualify for 'Prevent Departure Program'
Step 1-
Step 2- and so on...
2- Outline specific language required for custody order to ensure 'Prevent Departure' has full effect.
Please provide example of custody order.
Provide explanation and criteria.
3- Outline a clear explanation that in fact 'Prevent Departure' is a two part program.
Part 1 Name of potential taking parent is added to a data base.
Part 2 Only when children are reported by law enforcement as missing/abducted; added to (NCIC) missing persons data base
by law enforcement, is the ‘Prevent Departure’ in full force and has full effect.
10 Disseminate and ensure parents, judicial and law enforcement understand ‘Prevent Departure’ is a two part program.
Suggest items below are only sent to parent who has initiated ‘Prevent Departure’ their legal, judicial and law enforcement contacts.
This may prevent giving the snake the path around 'Prevent Departure'.
Provide example of process 'Prevent Departure' will have when it is tripped/flagged/initiated i.e. by
taking abducting parent listed in ‘Prevent Departure’.
Please provide an overview of the functionality in real time, as if it was happening.
‘Prevent Departure Program’ is not a 100% reliable, it involves many agencies and steps.
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 Many moving parts, dissemination, coordination, time restrictions, common sense knowledge of.
10 Advance communications by LBP to local law enforcement could prevent.
Begin, Initiate, Start quarterly interaction with LBP's and those who are involved in Advocacy & Prevention.
Develope a Liason position within the State Dept/OCI which would communicate and meet with Advocacy & Prevention.
Develope a Military Liason tasked to interact with Dept of Defence /J.A.G./ Active/Reserve/Guard Military LBP.
Liason would also go down range to meet with Military LBP 1 on 1, we owe our military much more but this is a start http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d11602.pdf DHS also checks the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing Persons File routinely for travelers out of the United States, which,
1in very limited circumstances, may result in intercepting a child before an international flight departs. For passengers traveling internationally on a commercial flight, airlines are required to provide passenger manifest data (generally, information listed on government-issued passports) obtained at
2check-in from all passengers to DHS’s Customs and Border Protection no later than 30 minutes prior to the securing of the aircraft doors, or transmit manifest information on an individual basis as each passenger checks in for the flight up to but no <-(page 17) (page 18) -> later than the securing of the aircraft.
3DHS officials told us that they have automated systems to check this passenger manifest data against the NCIC Missing Persons File and, that if a match is made, DHS officials contact the law enforcement officials who originally entered the case into the missing persons file to determine what action to take.
4Actions could include collaborating with law enforcement and airlines to, among other things, prevent the child from departing on an international flight.
According to DHS officials,
5however, even if there were a match between passenger manifest data and the missing person’s file, they still may not be able to prevent an international parental child abduction on an airline;
6DHS officials can receive passenger manifest data as late as 30 minutes before securing an aircraft,
7making it difficult to coordinate with law enforcement, airport, and airline officials in enough time to prevent the abducted child from departing on an international flight. Furthermore,
8names might not be entered into the database in time for a match to be made. To include an abducted child in this database,
9a parent would need to contact a local or state law enforcement agency and file a missing person’s report. In addition,
10local law enforcement officers may not enter reported parental abduction cases into the NCIC database because they may not view them as qualifying; they may view them as private family disputes instead of criminal matters. DHS could only confirm two cases in which it identified a match using this system, and an official who administers the matching stated that she did not know if the two matched cases resulted in preventing the child from boarding an international flight.
We can’t continue to scrutinize without taking steps to effect the changes needed to protect our children. Failure is not defined by attempts to change what is wrong back to what is right; failure is defined by accepting what is wrong and doing nothing to change it! L.E.R.P.
Poll
