Digital Cameras, Scanners, Printers From Canon Speed Search For Missing Children

EDP Weekly's IT Monitor, Jan 18, 1999

According to state family and youth services officials, the first 12 hours after a child is reported missing is the most critical time for a search to begin. Unfortunately, many metropolitan police departments are hampered by inadequate computer equipment that usually requires photos of missing children be sent to a photo lab for production, which takes time.

To speed up the process, camera and PC printer maker Canon, under a deal with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, is supplying 19 law enforcement agencies from across the country with high-tech tools -- digital cameras, scanners and inkjet printers -- that can reduce the search time for a missing child from a matter of days to critical hours.

Each participating department will be able to produce the image of a missing child or a habitual runaway from a photo scanned into a PC. Then the child's photo can be printed on a flyer that can be distributed to patrol officers in a matter of minutes.