Free Child ID Program on Saturday in South County, Fox Service Center on March 26

Concerned parents can have their children fingerprinted and photographed as part of a comprehensive, free safety program at Ronnie’s Cine, at 5320 Lindbergh Blvd. in Crestwood, between noon and 5 p.m. on Saturday. 

The Roy Wilde Conference Center, 849 Jeffco Blvd., will host the event on March 26.

The Missouri Child Identity Protection, or MoCHIP, program, sponsored by the Masonic Children’s Foundation of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Masons, is offered to children from newborns through teens, according to a news release on the Fox C-6 School District website.

None of the childrens' information will be retained by the Masons, the news release stated.

The program's purpose is to help law enforcement officers quickly gather information about missing or abducted children. Upset parents have difficulty finding and providing that information, the news release said.

The MoCHIP program consists of digital photographs and fingerprints, child and emergency contact information, a dental bite impression and two laminated ID cards. The entire process takes about 15 minutes for each child. After the information is collected, it is recorded onto a mini-CD for parents. The CD is compatible with the Amber Alert system.

“If police officers have a laptop computer in their car, they can take the CD and upload it to the system in about three minutes,” said Craig Skinner, the program’s regional coordinator for Eastern Missouri. “It’s done almost instantaneously.”

Since the program began in 2005, 117,000 children have been identified and seven Missouri children have been recovered, mostly from rural areas of the state, Skinner said.