Police now offer child ID system

Kansas City Police are using a new system to help find children in the event they go missing.

Dozens of families took advantage of the new EZ Child ID system when police rolled it out at a Slurpees with a Cop event Aug. 11 at a 7-11 store in south Kansas City. The system makes an ID card for children with their identifying information and takes digital fingerprints.

“In the event a child goes missing and an Amber Alert has to be issued, having that information already makes it much more efficient and easy,” said Officer Jason Cooley, who spearheaded the project.

Blue Cross Blue Shield Kansas City, in cooperation with the Police Foundation of Kansas City, donated the money to purchase three of the kits. Each EZ Child ID kit includes a hard case, laptop computer, digital fingerprint scanner, portable camera system, card printer and cooling equipment to run outside. Police obtained the kits in early 2020 and planned to roll them out at spring community events, which unfortunately had to be cancelled to prevent the spread of COVID-19.

Some KCPD outdoor community events are up and running again, and Officer Cooley said it was the right time to deploy the EZ Child ID system.

“Kids are not negotiable,” he said. “We’ve got to move forward with this. We’ve got to help parents, and we can have stranger danger conversations around it.”