Being a good citizen...

You may remember about a once-a-week class, offered by Public Safety, a couple of years ago. I went one night a week for several months to learn about some very interesting aspects of all the local law enforcement departments. The ten or so people in my group did things like going to the shooting range to have target practice (with a Lot of supervision), tour the County Jail, meet officers from all the different divisions from patrol to the chief to learn about their jobs.

Completing the class gave me the opportunity to be involved with 'alumni', so I sent in my $10 and joined the association. I get a very amusing, interesting newsletter from this group that meets once a month. They provide assistance and support when asked to help with promotions and publicity for the Public Safety. I went to a back-to-school event at a church on the north side of town, when a group of the Citizens supporting Law Enforcement Alumni Association was volunteering. One thing they do is fingerprinting of children when asked.  The two police/sheriff's dept. men who taught the class were there to supervise, provide a police presence, but the volunteers did the work. I was the person at the table where kids first came in the door with the forms on heavy card stock. There was space on the form for parents to provide basic info. about each child, but we only filled in names to identify each individual. Parents, mostly moms, were instructed to complete the info. to have personal records at home for each kid..

We did prints for about 75 kids, ages 3 to 13: all who came with parents to the church for the school supply giveaway.  The other workers who have been helping to provide this service for years told stories of past experience. They said when the local Baptist Association did a similar event, Kits 4 Kids giveaway, there were hundreds of children in attendance. So apparently this one was not so well publicized.

My assignment was to write the child's name and age on each form, and pass it to one of the team who were actually doing the inking and printing. The age is important so if the need arises, there is some way to tell how old the child was when the prints were done, to adjust for growth. As you know the prints never change, but they will increase in size as the hands and body grow to adulthood.

I had forgotten that I have a copy of the same form, in a file with prints, from one of my own personal children. The little tips of the fingers I have recorded are so small. She was probably about six at the time they were done. Hard to believe those limbs to which they were attached have grown to make her nearly six feet tall.  I am prepared if she should go missing.