National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
To make full use of all available resources for
missing and exploited children investigations, a
FBI Supervisory Special Agent is assigned to the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children
(NCMEC) in Alexandria, Virginia. He or she coordinates
FBI and NCMEC resources to facilitate the most effective
FBI response to child abductions, parental kidnappings,
and sexual exploitation of children matters.
The NCMEC is a private, non-profit organization established in 1984 that operates
under a Congressional mandate and works in cooperation with the U.S. Department
of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. As the
nation's resource center for child protection, the NCMEC spearheads national
efforts to locate and recover missing children and to raise public awareness
about ways to prevent child abduction, molestation, sexual exploitation, and
the victimization of children. These goals are accomplished by coordinating
the efforts of law enforcement, social service agencies, elected officials,
judges, prosecutors, and educators, in the public and private sectors to break
the cycle of violence.
The NCMEC provides a wide range of free services to law enforcement including:
- technical
case assistance;
- information
analysis and dissemination;
- photograph
and poster preparation and rapid dissemination
of such;
- age-enhancement
of photographs;
- facial
reconstruction and imaging services;
- database
searches;
- educational
materials and publications; and,
- training.
The NCMEC
also maintains a 24-hour multilingual hotline at
1-800-THE-LOST and a website at www.missingkids.com to provide:
- assistance
to parents and law enforcement agencies about missing
or sexually exploited chidren;
- a
central location to receive reports of missing
children sightings;
- parents
with information on how to better safeguard their
children; and,
- reunification
assistance to parents once their children are found.
NCMEC operates a CyberTipline at www.cybertipline.com that allows parents and children
to report child pornography and sexual exploitation
of children by submitting an online form. This form
is then reviewed by analysts and forwarded to law enforcement
including the FBI, the U.S. Customs Service, the U.S.
Postal Inspection Service, and state and local police
agencies.
Individual FBI
Field Offices serve as primary points of contact for persons requesting
FBI assistance. For further information about FBI services or to request
assistance, please contact a Crimes Against Children Coordinator at your
local FBI Field Office.