Focus on Child Safety After Leiby Kletzky’s Murder

NEW YORK—Parents and their children gathered at the Brooklyn Central Library on Sunday to obtain Safe Child Cards, prompted by the recent murder of 8-year-old Leiby Kletzky.

“In light of what happened to Leiby, I think it’s really important to do,” said Park Slope resident Alison, with 17-month-old Miles in her arms. “It’s important for a child of any age to do this.”

If a child disappears, having a current photograph and accurate information—such as height, weight, date of birth, and fingerprints—could mean the difference between finding and not finding the child.

According to a 2002 survey by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, 22 percent of parents do not know the height, weight, and eye color of their children, making the free Safe Child Card— which has all of these items listed on an ID-like card—a good resource in times of emergency.

“We can take preventive steps to make sure we have the information that we give police officers, and I think this case has raised the issue nationally of how we can take some very simple steps of safeguarding our children,” said state Sen. Eric Adams, who partnered with NYPD and Youth America to offer residents the opportunity to obtain the cards.

Parents and guardians also have the option of storing the information in a statewide electronic database, which would enable a rapid response to a missing child by law enforcement agencies.

“I do have some of the materials [photos and information] of my child, but the opportunity to record them in the database is not something we have done previously,” said former police officer and Brooklyn resident Maurice Lauriam, who brought his daughter and niece, both in elementary school, to get the cards. “If an incident happened, the likelihood of me being able to find and remember where I put that stuff [is not good].”

Parents found out about the opportunity to get the cards through different channels: Kim Lee, with her son Judah, received an e-mail from a neighborhood mailing list; Lauriam’s kids saw a posted informational flier; and Alison found out about the event at the library.

Typically, the Safe Child Card sign-up events are held four to five times a year, mostly at schools and community centers. The next scheduled occurrence would have been in September, but “in light of the tragedy that happened in Borough Park, we said, ‘Let’s do it right away,’” explained Ingrid Lewis-Martin, Adams’ chief of staff.

Two NYPD officers were on hand to issue cards on Sunday, with assistance by young adults from Law Enforcement Explorers, a community-service, career-oriented program that educates youth aged 14–20 about law enforcement.

The Safe Child Card is part of Operation Safe Child, which was created in July 2005 to raise awareness about child safety, in partnership with New York State Sheriffs’ Association, New York State Association of Chiefs of Police, New York state police, and NYPD.

The program’s multipronged approach also advises parents to “know your child’s friends by learning about Internet safety” and “know your neighborhood by using the New York State Sex Offender Registry.”

Informational materials listing 10 tips for protecting children were on hand at Sunday’s event. These offered “some of those very simple ways of understanding what they [children] should do if someone approaches them, who they should go to, to ask for help, and what we should do if they are missing—how immediately we should reach out to the police to notify them,” explained Adams.

The tips for parents included making sure the children have memorized their home address and phone number, as well as 911, and practicing drills so that the children learn what to do if they are ever kidnapped or accidentally separated from the caregivers in a public place.