FLORENCE, Ky. — No parent wants to think about an emergency in which their child has gone missing. But if it happened, they’d want to have every tool at their disposal to bring them home safely as soon as possible.

One Kentucky police department is trying to offer that tool to families while also building relationships in the community.

What You Need To Know

  • The Florence Police Department held a community outreach event Wednesday

  • At the event, officers handed out fingerprint kits to parents

  • Parents can put their kids’ identifying information, dental records and even fingerprints into the kits

  • If their kids ever go missing, they can bring the kits to the police department where they can help officers in recovering their children

There were a lot of goodies available for kids to take home from the Florence Police Department’s community outreach event at Dick’s Sporting Goods Wednesday. Those included police themed toy cars and frisbees, and even gift bags from Dick’s.

However, the most valuable items available were the kits officers sent home with parents, like Brittanie and Tyler Chandler, that could just save their kids’ lives in emergency situations.

“As soon as we get home, we’ll do it with both of them at the table, and it’s nice to have that. And knowing they’re offering that is also nice peace of mind too as parents,” Brittanie Chandler said. “Because you don’t think about it that way as much sometimes. But to have that in case there was an emergency, it’s a nice peace of mind.”

Florence Police get the kits for free from the National Child Safety Council, and hand them out as often as they can. Parents can put their kids’ identifying information, dental records and even fingerprints into the kits.

If their kids ever go missing, they can bring the kits to the police department where they can help officers in recovering their children.

“Unfortunately, we live in a world now where things like that happen,” Tyler Chandler said. “It’s a good idea to have something like that on hand.”

Outreach events also give officers a chance to connect with the people they protect, which Sgt. Chris Billiter said makes them better cops.

“We also get a lot of kids come up and tell us they want to be a police officer. So it’s a good chance for us to kind of show them ourselves in a positive light. Because a lot of kids look up to us,” Billiter said.

That turned out to be the case with Brittanie and Tyler’s son, Logan.

“It makes us feel safe knowing that they’re out in the community getting face to face with people,” Brittanie said.

Billiter said he personally hasn’t used a fingerprint kit to locate a missing child, but he knows they have been used successfully in other police departments.