The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
‘DRIVER’S LICENSE’ FOR CHILDREN
Prosecutor’s Office offering child ID program
It provides parents ID cards for their children; and gives parents and children the chance to meet law enforcement officials in a nonstressful situation.
Lorain County Prosecutor J.D. Tomlinson wants every child to have an identification card.
Tomlinson’s office started the Lorain County Prosecutor’s Child Investigator Child Identification program after he took office in January.
The initiative serves a dual purpose.
It provides parents ID cards for their children; and gives parents and children the chance to meet law enforcement officials in a nonstressful situation.
It is a form of community outreach for the Prosecutor’s Office.
In recent years, law enforcement agencies have made a conscientious effort to become more involved in the community after a steady stream of deadly police shootings across the country caused many to become fearful and distrustful of law enforcement.
“Some of the many benefits are reducing crime, enhancing community safety and building legitimacy,” policechiefmagazine.com said of law enforcement agencies participating in a community outreach program.
In Lorain County, children sign up for the prosecutor ID program by filling out a form that provides information such as name, age, height, weight, eye and hair color and address.
An investigator from the Prosecutor’s Office typically collects the information, logs it into a laptop computer, snaps a picture of the applicant and takes a fingerprint and then prints out all that information on what looks like a driver’s license.
Garrett Longacre and Jim Martin, retired police officers who now are investigators for the Prosecutor’s Office, were signing up children for the program Dec. 28 and 29 inside a room used to interview juveniles on the third floor of the Lorain County Justice Center in Elyria.
“It’s the equivalent of a driver’s license for the kid,” Longacre said.
He recalled when he was an officer, there were many times he’d be on a call for a missing child and he’d ask for a picture of the child and parents would struggle to find one.
“They’d be like, I’ve got one somewhere, and then the picture they would have of the kid would be five years old,” Longacre said.
With the county prosecutor-issued ID, parents always will have an up-todate picture of their child to provide law enforcement if their child ever
goes missing, he said.
So far, 835 children have signed up for the program and been issued cards, Longacre said.
Sheriff investigators took their laptop and ID applications to events like the Corn Festival in North Ridgeville, Lorain County Fair in Wellington and The Apple Festival in Elyria.
“If we just set up a table at one of those events, people aren’t going to come to talk to us,” Longacre said. “But when we offer a free ID for their kids, they’ll stop by.”