South Carolina now has a new child identification program meant to help if they go missing.

On April 14, Attorney General Alan Wilson and state Sen. Katrina Shealy announced the South Carolina Child ID program, which consists of providing safety kits to all school districts across the state, during an event at the Football Operations Center at the University of South Carolina.

The attorney general emphasized the importance of the program by citing a state Law Enforcement Division statistic that 11 children go missing every day in South Carolina.

“Last year, the state Law Enforcement Division reported 416 human trafficking victims in South Carolina, 95% of them are minors,” he said. “98% of those were in sex trafficking rings.”

According to Wilson, 840,000 of the kits have been disseminated through the state’s school districts, including grades K- 12. Wilson stressed that these kits are not part of a centralized database and that they stay with the parent.

“This is an important part for a lot of parents in South Carolina. So we wanted to make that abundantly clear,” said Shealy.

The state senator, whose District 23 comprises the entirety of southern Lexington County, is credited with leading the bi-partisan legislative effort to install the ID program. 

“If it would happen to you, heaven forbid, you want to have that information, you want to be able to go to your safety deposit box or go open your cedar chest and pull that information out and take it to the sheriff's department or to SLED or wherever so they can find your child,” Shealy said.

Kenny Hansmire, executive director of the National Child Identification Program, shared that the kit uses biometrics, like fingerprints and saliva. The kit itself uses an inkless chemical reaction to gather fingerprints from all fingers along with a corner where the child bites down to store the DNA found in their saliva.

According to Hansmire, if this packet is stored correctly – out of sunlight and in a dry area – the DNA can last up to 50 years.

Other information stored in the kit includes height, weight, eye color, hair color and a place for a photo. Hansmire told the Chronicle that once collected, the only information contained in the kit that would ever need updating, if any, is the photograph.

“This is a gift of safety from the state of South Carolina and the AG’s office to parents to save time. 40% of the information that is on this ID kit is what law enforcement will ask when you report your child missing,” Hansmire said. “What's not on there is the clothes, do you have a boyfriend if it's a runaway, what kind of car were they driving, but this is to save time.”

The attorney general told those in attendance that since starting his position, multiple task forces within the state have grown tremendously, one of those being the Internet Crimes Against Children Task Force, which saw its membership grow from 44 law enforcement agencies to 125.

“Our offices devoted a significant amount of time, energy and resources developing partnerships over the last few years to help protect our children here in South Carolina,” he said.

Wilson said it’s important for parents to talk to children about stranger danger, but that families should be prepared in case their “worst nightmare” happens.

“It's an extra tool to give parents so they can help law enforcement recover their child more quickly,” Wilson said of the ID kits, “because at that point, every second matters.”