What is the MoCHIP Program?
 

No one wants to believe their child would ever be a victim of kidnapping, abduction, or running away but we know that everyday nearly 2,300 children go missing in the United States. Girls and boys ages 12 to 17 are statistically the most susceptible to being a victim.  Should an emergency like this happen, time is the most important consideration, the first two hours, the most crucial.  It is critical to be able to provide accurate information about your child’s physical characteristics to law enforcement quickly to enable police to get out the information out to the public as fast as possible. 

 

MoChip is a free program that allows parents to gather and have available their child’s vital information should the unimaginable happen.  Called, “one of the most comprehensive child recovery and identification programs in the nation” by the National Center for Exploited and Missing Children, MoChip is compatible with law enforcement laptops and the AMBER ALERT System already in place across the nation.  MoChip saves parents and law enforcement time, making recovery more likely. 

 

MoChip takes about 20 minutes to complete and consists of 5 components, digital photographs, including their ears which like finger prints, are like no one else in the world, digital finger prints, vital child information such as birth marks, illnesses, medication, emergency contact information, a dental bite impression, and two laminated ID cards.  All digital information is loaded onto a thumb drive so it can be carried in a purse or wallet.  The dental impression is a virtual diagram of a child’s bite surface, which is as unique to them as their fingerprints.  The dental impression contains enough saliva to provide a DNA sample and can be used as a scent source for trained canine search teams.

 

None of the personal information gathered is kept by MoChip, except the permission slip.  The equipment used to produce the thumb drive has the same built in bleaching software used by the FBI to remove all personal information so no one has to worry about some database being breached or stolen.