Fort Lee, Va. (May 7, 2009) -- Child, Youth and School Services recently partnered with local Masonic Lodges to bring the latest in child identification technology to Fort Lee.
For the second year in a row, the 29th District of Lodges has offered this service to community children and their parents.
The method has gone digital and gone are the days of messy fingers and smudged fingerprint cards.
Using software written in conjunction with the needs of the Masonic child identification program, EZ Child ID allows information to be electronically gathered. This method enables law enforcement to distribute identifying information about children if they are missing.
Information such as the child's full name, gender and physical characteristics are stored on a compact disc kept by parents or guardians. The software is designed so that information is flushed from the computer each time a new application begins. The only record kept by the lodge members is the parental permission slip.
The Grand Lodge of Virginia Freemasons executes and funds the Virginia Child Identification Program. The Grand Lodge Committee on Child ID formed with the mission of helping to keep kids safe with a no-cost, comprehensive child identification service.
Each EZ Child ID kit contains a laptop, industrial fingerprinting scanner, a camera similar to a webcam and the software program. Six ID kits circulate through the 12 Masonic divisions in the Commonwealth.
Brian Barnes, VaCHIP director, 29th District, said the program was set up to assist the state as a whole as well as schools with identifying children.
"So many children go missing," Barnes said. "We hope that this will protect children, or help stem the tide of these incidents."
According to the EZ Child ID Web site, more than 32 states utilize their systems to provide free identification services to parents. Buyers of the software or kits cannot charge for child identification services.
More than 250 Fort Lee children participated in the event.
For details, visit www.ezchildid.com.
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