DMV Poster Program
Public Awareness Recovers Kids
Experience has shown that one of the most effective tools in the location and recovery of missing/abducted children is the display of their pictures and physical description to the public. Because of the large and constant number of visitors in and out of driver's license and motor vehicle service offices, these locations provide a very effective venue for reaching many people. Therefore, in 2001, with the cooperation, support, and assistance of the state office, the Vanished Children's Alliance (VCA) began its Department of Motor Vehicle (DMV) Poster Program with California. Over the past four years, the California DMV Poster Program has proven to be a win-win situation for the DMV offices, VCA, and most importantly, the missing children.
The program consists of the placement of VCA's large format (11x17) missing child posters in a public area in the motor vehicle service field offices throughout the state. Each poster contains the photograph and descriptive information of 20 missing/abducted children for which law enforcement is seeking assistance in locating. The children featured in these posters are from throughout the entire United States. Each poster displays VCA's 800 number for the public to call in leads and sightings 24-hours a day. As this information is received, it is immediately forwarded by VCA to the appropriate law enforcement agency for investigation and handling.
SAMPLE POSTER
Each 11x17 Poster Features 20 Missing Children from Various Parts of
the Nation.
Depending on the display area available, the field offices can display from one to five color-coded posters. As these posters are updated with new cases, replacement posters are provided through the dissemination mechanism established with each participating state.
Due to the success of this program in California, VCA is working to expand this program nationwide. VCA will accomplish this through an enhancement and expansion of existing California DMV group poster dissemination network to include other states. The process for dissemination of the posters to the field offices can be tailored to the needs and procedural guidelines for each state. Depending on the needs and desires of the participating states, the posters can be mailed directly to the individual field offices or provided to the state-level offices for distribution.