Johnston Police Emphasize Timely Reporting When It Comes To Missing Children

Johnston police procedures have changed immensely since Johnny Gosch's disappearance 30 years ago while delivering Sunday papers in West Des Moines.

Today from the amount of time that passes when officers start looking for a child to the Amber Alert Program.

The Johnston Police Department continually analyzes practices and response procedures by attending training through the Amber Alert Program, said Lt. Lynn Aswegan with the police department. That training is designed to increase collaboration, improve skills, and develop more effective policies and practices to protect and safely recover missing children.

P.J. Caffrey uses a few techniques when talking to his children about strangers.

"Kids think strangers are supposed to look scary or mean, when actually it can be anyone and can be a man or a woman," he said. "We talk about anyone you don’t know should not be approaching you or getting close to you and is a stranger."

While Aswegan couldn't recall any reports of missing children, the department does respond to runaway calls often from Youth Homes of Mid America, a social service agency in Johnston that offers programs ranging from a residential treatment campus to a tracking and monitoring program for first-time juvenile offenders.

"We had an interdepartmental inservice last fall where we met with all our department officers and went over the initial street response if called," Aswegan said. "We review it fairly frequently."

Aswegan urges parents not to delay contacting police if their child is missing.

"Parents have a tendency to presume their child is just somewhere that they will readily find them," he said. "There is, in actual abduction cases, time lost waiting for the report to come in. Parents spend a lot of crucial time, and understandably so, trying to find the child by phone or search themselves."

Parents should call the police department immediately and tell authorities their child is missing.

"In a lot of cases they just don't want to needlessly call the police to just find their child next door," Aswegan said. "In situations it's crucial to contact us, then find them next door, rather than waste valuable time."

Parents can then follow up with the department to notify that their child has been found.

Advice from a Johnston Parent

One techinque is to have a secret password that only family knows if someone would approach your child in a car and know your parent's name.

If a stranger asked a child to climb in a vehicle and didn't know the password, the child should run away, Caffrey said. "Kids need to know it’s OK to yell out loud and run away and always tell their parents and be aware of their surroundings," Caffrey said. 

Another good rule of thumb he passes on is to stay in groups and not be alone in parks or around the neighborhood.  

"Never go anywhere with anyone you don’t know," he said.