Christopher Blankenship
Detective for the Broward Sheriff's Office, Missing Person's Unit
S: Before the Milk Carton Campaign, how did the police handle missing children cases?
CB: Basically before you had the invention of putting the pictures on the Milk Cartons, you had very compartmentalized investigations, which means you had jurisdictions, per say like Broward County, I would have a case in Broward County and once it got on some sort of national news channel, no one outside of this county will probably know anything about whether they were citizens or anybody else, reporters otherwise. So basically you had information fully stopped within the jurisdiction were a missing person was from or else it became a national story. After, when you finally had pictures that were out there for people to see, did you start to get outside groups who were willing to assist with investigations and people that were calling tips where you didn't have a lot of that unless you had a case in the media.
S: How did the Adam Walsh case help to innovate the way the Police handle missing children cases? If it helped at all.
CB: Prior, the case made things very real to law enforcement, parents, and kids as well. Basically, what you had there, you had a case that became national attention and still is to this day. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that they had an outside group to investigate the case again. So, back then when it happened, you heard about missing persons getting abducted, but you didn't really see it until that case blew up and became a big media event.
S: Nowadays, how does it work to find missing children?
CB: Well, it depends on the case. If you're dealing with extremely young children, you're talking about something where everybody comes out, whether it is a blood helm, extra man power, helicopters... Anything and everything you could think of. We use the media, we use the internet, we use A Child Is Missing (organization in Broward County, FL, who sends a message to every phone number within a mile circle from where the child went missing).
S: How did publicity change the way missing children are found today?
CB: The majority of the cases you see on the news are going to be more teenage type children. I probably get approximately 165 missing persons cases, usually teenagers of 14-17 years old, for reasons like running away or otherwise. The others you're gonna see on the news are going to be fairly young children and people that are missing under suspicious circumstances. So, you know, adults, the elderly... But you can see, when we have an elderly person we have, what they call, the Silver Alerts. So we put the sign up on a turnpike or anywhere else where people can see the description. And utilizing the print media and television, we can get their picture out a lot more than you used to be able to when you had only the print media to utilize.
S: How prevalent are missing children cases now compared to before 1984? Did it get better?
CB: I can't tell you as far as before 1984, because you have to take in account the population that was down here in 1984 and the one nowadays, which is much different. I can only tell you that, in the seven years I've been doing this, it's about the same: 150-160, pretty much these seven years.
CB: Basically before you had the invention of putting the pictures on the Milk Cartons, you had very compartmentalized investigations, which means you had jurisdictions, per say like Broward County, I would have a case in Broward County and once it got on some sort of national news channel, no one outside of this county will probably know anything about whether they were citizens or anybody else, reporters otherwise. So basically you had information fully stopped within the jurisdiction were a missing person was from or else it became a national story. After, when you finally had pictures that were out there for people to see, did you start to get outside groups who were willing to assist with investigations and people that were calling tips where you didn't have a lot of that unless you had a case in the media.
S: How did the Adam Walsh case help to innovate the way the Police handle missing children cases? If it helped at all.
CB: Prior, the case made things very real to law enforcement, parents, and kids as well. Basically, what you had there, you had a case that became national attention and still is to this day. I mean, it wasn't so long ago that they had an outside group to investigate the case again. So, back then when it happened, you heard about missing persons getting abducted, but you didn't really see it until that case blew up and became a big media event.
S: Nowadays, how does it work to find missing children?
CB: Well, it depends on the case. If you're dealing with extremely young children, you're talking about something where everybody comes out, whether it is a blood helm, extra man power, helicopters... Anything and everything you could think of. We use the media, we use the internet, we use A Child Is Missing (organization in Broward County, FL, who sends a message to every phone number within a mile circle from where the child went missing).
S: How did publicity change the way missing children are found today?
CB: The majority of the cases you see on the news are going to be more teenage type children. I probably get approximately 165 missing persons cases, usually teenagers of 14-17 years old, for reasons like running away or otherwise. The others you're gonna see on the news are going to be fairly young children and people that are missing under suspicious circumstances. So, you know, adults, the elderly... But you can see, when we have an elderly person we have, what they call, the Silver Alerts. So we put the sign up on a turnpike or anywhere else where people can see the description. And utilizing the print media and television, we can get their picture out a lot more than you used to be able to when you had only the print media to utilize.
S: How prevalent are missing children cases now compared to before 1984? Did it get better?
CB: I can't tell you as far as before 1984, because you have to take in account the population that was down here in 1984 and the one nowadays, which is much different. I can only tell you that, in the seven years I've been doing this, it's about the same: 150-160, pretty much these seven years.