Free Child ID Safety Program on Saturday in South County

A comprehensive child identification program in which parents can have their children fingerprinted and photographed for free is set for Saturday in South County.

The Missouri Child Identity Protection (MoCHIP) program, sponsored by the Masonic Children’s Foundation of the Grand Lodge of Missouri Masons, is offered for newborns through teens. Saturday’s event is scheduled for noon to 5 p.m. at Ronnie’s Cine at 5320 Lindbergh Blvd. in Crestwood. Reservations are not accepted. Instead, parents simply show up with their children.

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. Once the information is collected, it is burned 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.”

Skinner said that 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.

For more information on the program or to download a permission form, visit www.mochip.org.