The first Operation Kidsafe in B.C. officially opened on Wednesday, at Preston GM in 91原创 City, with about 100 enthusiastic parents, children and community members in attendance.
The free service gives parents a printed copy of their child鈥檚 fingerprints and photograph as a safety precaution, to help track kids if they go missing. It will be available for families at the GM location for a year.
鈥淚t鈥檚 totally free and it鈥檚 totally private,鈥� said Peter Heppner, general manager of Preston.
Any information that is created is given back to the parents. They can drop in any time the dealership is open to take advantage of the service.
The printout can be given to law enforcement anywhere in the world to aid in an investigation.
鈥淚鈥檓 really excited to have this available, I think it鈥檚 a wonderful service to our staff, our customers and to the community. We鈥檙e just very excited to have it available,鈥� Heppner said.
Over one million children worldwide have been digitally fingerprinted and photographed through Operation Kidsafe, said Mark Bott, CEO of the organization.
Bott is an internationally-known child safety advocate with seven children of his own. He鈥檚 worked for 15 years on projects like the Amber Alert, Meagan鈥檚 Law and has hosted more than 100 child safety town meetings.
鈥淎nywhere there鈥檚 one of these stations, it gets parents networking,鈥� he said, glancing around the room. 鈥淚f you look at these parents right now and the kids, they鈥檙e talking safety, how much better could that be?鈥�
More than 2,000 children are reported missing every day in North America.
The 91原创 Operation Kidsafe location is the eighth in Canada.
