Shaken Parents Taking More Child Safety Precautions

Jolted by the recent string of high-profile child abductions, more parents nationwide are fearful about their youngsters’ safety and taking such precautions as teaching them escape tactics, recording their fingerprints and storing their DNA samples.

Officials warn against panic, saying that such crimes actually have declined in recent years. Some experts question the usefulness of various anti-kidnapping measures and speculate that they may be scaring children needlessly.

Still, the abductions of Samantha Runnion, Elizabeth Smart, the two teenagers from Antelope Valley and others nationwide have prompted parents to lecture children--even very young ones-- about potential dangers. Sponsors of child identification programs say demand has risen dramatically in the last few weeks as edgy parents have groped for peace of mind.

For example, Georgia Young, visiting from Cheyenne, Wyo., recently attended the Orange County Fair with her granddaughters Brianna, 10, and Brittany, 11. She took the girls to a booth where the Irvine Valley Masons offered free digital scans of children’s faces and thumbprints to help authorities locate them if they are abducted.

Even in Cheyenne, where the pace of life is slower and the threat of violence a little more distant, “everybody has got their antenna up because of the kidnappings,” Young said as she neared the front of a long line of waiting families.

The children’s images are processed into a template that includes space for names, nicknames, distinguishing marks, doctor, dentist and other biographical facts. Parents and other caregivers receive a document that can be quickly copied and distributed to police or posted around the community in case the child disappears.

“It makes me feel better,” said Brittany, who lives in Bellflower. “It’s something I can take home for Mom and Dad to keep.”

The fears have increased especially after intensive media coverage, such as live television broadcasts of the funeral of the 5-year-old Runnion child kidnapped from her Stanton home and killed.

Ceci Meyerpeter, a bank attendant from Pembroke Pines, Fla., said she has become more worried about her daughters, Ashley, 5, and Amber, 10 months. Until now, she hadn’t warned Ashley about strangers because “she doesn’t understand people can be bad. But now I have. She’s too trusting, vulnerable and innocent.

“I don’t let her play outside anymore, and when she goes next door to play, either her father or I watch her to make sure she’s safe,” Meyerpeter added.

In Philadelphia, where 7-year-old Erica Pratt recently escaped kidnappers, Roslyn McQueen said that case and others this summer concern her as a parent and as owner of a small day-care center. The two families that leave children in her care are questioning her more about security. She requires that all children be signed in and out of her care, for instance.

For her own children, the rules also are tight. “When the sun goes down, they come in,” she said. “As a parent myself, I feel that we really have to overprotect our children--make sure we know where they are and what they’re doing at all times.”

FBI officials stress that such concern is driven more by media attention than reality. The number of so-called stranger abductions has decreased: 143 cases nationally in the federal fiscal year (Oct. 1 to Sept. 30) of 1999, 106 cases in 2000 and 93 last year. From last October to June, there had been 62 cases.

But the FBI--which recently partnered with the American Football Coaches Assn. to distribute free child identification kits--maintains that caution is better than not being prepared. The agency said PTAs, YMCAs and other civic groups this summer have been asking for the kits and anti-abduction presentations at much higher rates than usual.

“The media has picked up on this recent spurt, but we have these cases all the time,” said April Brooks, a special agent who heads the FBI’s Crimes Against Children Unit. “Any program out there that helps with the identification of kids is beneficial. Parents need to be reminded that things like this can and do happen, to your own family and to the neighbor next door, and they should be prudent in doing things that will keep kids safe.”

In Los Angeles today, police stations throughout the city will open their doors to provide free fingerprinting and photos of children for parents to keep.

Mayor James K. Hahn, who initiated the fingerprinting sessions, also encouraged parents to walk with their children to school and point out places and people they could run to for help.

As part of the National Night Out crime-prevention program, Long Beach police will fingerprint children next week and are expecting a crowd. A department spokeswoman said it has fielded a marked increase in calls in recent weeks from parents wanting the fingerprinting.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children will soon unveil a free digital identification package that parents can store on a compact disc with release forms allowing direct distribution to medical and law enforcement authorities via the Internet.

“Our phone volume has doubled, with parents asking what they can do and communities asking what they can do,” said David Shapiro, a spokesman for the nonprofit Alexandria, Va.-based center. “When you have the numbers of high-profile tragedies we’ve had, the mind-set is: We need to so something now.”

Although photos and fingerprints cannot prevent an abduction, police say the faster such information is available, the more likely it is that the child can be retrieved.

But some experts dismiss their effectiveness, saying they give parents a false sense of security while alarming children. They worry that an overwrought focus on kidnappings detracts from other safety concerns--like children who don’t wear bike helmets or who aren’t strapped in car safety seats--that are far more likely to endanger them.

Barry Glassner, a USC sociology professor, argues that parents are being manipulated by relentless media hype as well as by slick marketers.

“It’s hard to imagine any serious danger to children that is less likely than kidnapping by a stranger,” said Glassner, who has written about how media coverage drives the public’s anxieties.

“If parents are going to worry about anything, this is not what it should be. We’ve had several very unfortunate events, but they do not add up to a trend or, as some cable news channels are calling it, an epidemic.”

Glassner said the furor over the most recent abductions is likely to dissipate in a few weeks, but not before many parents have shelled out money for DNA kits and other protective devices.

Some experts predict that amateur fingerprinting done by parents or at malls or fairs will end up illegible and worthless for identification purposes. Similarly, a lock of hair or nail clipping can become contaminated, they say. Filling that breech is a DNA kit--selling for $14.95--that uses a swab of the inner mouth that can be stored in a container at room temperature for years.

Joe Matthews, a former Miami Beach homicide detective who created the DNA storage kit, called Lifeprint, said that South Salt Lake, Utah, police distributed 1,500 of the kits for free after 14-year-old Elizabeth Smart was abducted from her home. Matthews also sells the kits individually, and said demand spiked in communities where a kidnapping occurred this summer.

B’nai B’rith of Southern California, in response to the abductions, is reissuing a free 40-page pamphlet on how parents can protect children. The group is in talks with the Los Angeles Unified School District to turn the book--which includes exercises, sample conversations and role playing--into classroom or at-home lessons.

Many parents clearly are groping for answers, for just the right do’s and don’ts that might prevent the unthinkable.

“Since these kidnappings have occurred, it’s made me talk to my kids, especially the little ones,” said Heather Somervill, an Irvine mother who got her 4-year-old son and 3-year-old daughter photographed and fingerprinted. “That’s what really scares me--you have to tell them it doesn’t matter who it is or what they’re wearing, they can’t trust any strangers. It’s sad you have to get to that point.”

In the Seattle area, Amy Sutton, an assistant in a physical therapist’s office, said much of the concern is media driven. “But that doesn’t mean it isn’t important--anything that makes parents more aware of the danger has to be a good thing.”

So she is talking to her 5-year-old son, Jeffrey, about not going anywhere with strangers and how to tell her about suspicious-looking adults.

“It’s hard to know how to protect him,” she said. “I know the odds are against him being taken, but every parent wonders.”

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Times staff writers Lisa Fackler in Washington and Erika Pesantes in Miami and researcher Lynn Marshall in Seattle contributed to this report. Rivera reported from Costa Mesa and Los Angeles.