CRIME WATCH : Lifesaving Teamwork

When 12-year-old Kathleen (Katie) Romanek was abducted at knifepoint from her Lodi, Calif., home Saturday, community volunteers, law enforcement officers and the media responded immediately with an intense, highly publicized and well-coordinated search.

Their efforts, it turned out, paid off handsomely: Less than 24 hours after Katie disappeared, she was found alive and not seriously hurt in a field in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada.

The happy ending stands in stark contrast to another recent case, that of Polly Klaas, who was kidnaped from her Petaluma home last October and was later found strangled. Richard Allen Davis, a convicted kidnaper, confessed to the killing.

Law enforcement officers will be the first to admit that luck plays a part in solving such crimes. But one big difference last weekend clearly was a more rapid response and better cooperation between authorities than in the Klaas kidnaping. And that, according to the Federal Bureau of Investigation, is critical because the first 24 hours often can tip the balance between life and death in child abduction cases.

Police at Lodi not only contacted the FBI, they also contacted the Polly Klaas Foundation. The foundation quickly mobilized: It distributed 20,000 flyers throughout Northern California, contacted the media and organized volunteers to help with the search. Meanwhile, local law enforcement worked with the FBI’s Sacramento bureau and its San Francisco office, which includes a special kidnaping task force.

Bravo.