Soroptimists Hosts Former Police Chief Kristen Anderson

July 2009
Soroptimist Hosts Former Port Townsend Police Chief Kristen Anderson

Soroptimist International of Port Townsend-East Jefferson County welcomed back Kristen Anderson, former Port Townsend Chief of Police to meet with old friends and relay details of her current work at its monthly dinner meeting on Thursday, July 27. (Anderson was an active Soroptimist member, while living in Jefferson County.)

After leaving the Olympic Peninsula, Anderson relocated to the Washington D.C. area and is the Case Analysis Director of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). She has appeared regularly on CNN broadcasts of "Find the Children", where she relays highlights of various disappearances in the hopes that viewers will offer leads and information.

Founded in 1984 as a private, nonprofit 501©(3) organization, the Center is headquartered in Alexandria, VA, with nine branch offices throughout the country. Its mission is to help prevent child abduction and sexual exploitation; help find missing children; and assist victims of child abduction and sexual exploitation, their families, and the professionals who serve them.

Anderson told the group about her work, giving a virtual tour of the facility and functions of the various departments, punctuating the discussion with actual stories of cases she has witnessed.

NCMEC mandates are to:

Serve as the national resource center and information clearinghouse for missing and exploited children
Operate a national 24-hour toll-free hotline to intake reports of missing children and receive leads about ongoing cases
Operate the CyberTipline, the "9-1-1 for the Internet," that the public and electronic service providers may use to report Internet-related child sexual exploitation
Coordinate public and private programs that locate, recover, or reunite missing children with their families
Provide technical assistance and training to individuals and law-enforcement agencies in the prevention, investigation, prosecution, and treatment of cases involving missing and exploited children
Provide assistance to families and law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children, both nationally and internationally
Use public records databases to provide analytical support and technical assistance to law enforcement agencies in locating and recovering missing and exploited children and abductors
Track the incidence of attempted child abductions
Provide technical assistance and training to law enforcement in identifying and locating non-compliant sex offenders
Provide forensic technical assistance to law enforcement
Work with law enforcement and the private sector to reduce the distribution of child pornography over the Internet
Operate a child victim identification program to assist law enforcement in identifying victims of child pornography
Develop and disseminates programs and information about Internet safety and the prevention of child abduction and sexual exploitation
Facilitate the deployment of the National Emergency Child Locator Center during periods of national disasters
Disseminate information about innovative and model programs, services, and legislation that benefit missing and exploited children
Provide an annual report on the number of missing children Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention
Provide guidance to state and local governments and nonprofit agencies on how to use school records and birth certificates to locate missing children
Deploy Team Adam, a rapid response and support system comprised of retired law enforcement officers, to provide on-site technical assistance to local law enforcement agencies investigating cases of child abduction and sexual exploitation

For more about NCMEC: www.missingkids.com.

Soroptimist International is a worldwide organization for women in management and professions, working through service projects to advance human rights and the status of women. For more info about Soroptimist, visit our international website: http://www.soroptimistinternational.org/