Last week a two-year old child wandered away from his home in a Canton. A resident in the subdivision noticed the child walking around alone with a pacifier in his mouth, and called the police. Officer Robert Sidor arrived at the location as the child was about to cross the street. The toddler would not speak, but did get into the officer's patrol car. Officer Sidor spoke with the caller, who stated he did not recognize the boy. The officer drove around the immediate area, looking for someone that recognized the child. When this failed, they returned to the station.

Police took a picture of the boy to be printed onto flyers for officers to canvas the neighborhood with. The picture was also sent out over the Silent Partner Alert system with information on the found child. Within minutes of the alert being sent out, a neighbor of the family received the message, recognized the boy, and phoned his mother at work. At the same time, the child's father discovered the boy missing and called the police.

Police department employees were pleased to hear how quickly the child was recognized by a Silent Partner Alert subscriber. "We knew Silent Partner would allow us to get important information out to the public in a timely manner, but we were pleasantly surprised to see how fast it worked to get important information from the public back to us," says Sergeant Scott Hilden of the Canton Police Department. Hilden adds, "In this instance the child's father also discovered the boy missing, but if he had been the victim of a medical emergency, or foul play, the child would have remained ‘lost’ until the mother returned from work. Thanks to Silent Partner, the mother was notified within one hour of the police being called."

For residents who aren't familiar with the new Silent Partner Alert System, it is an online broadcast system that delivers timely and critical public safety information to subscribers via their email, text pager, cell phone or PDA. Since it began in February, police have sent out neighborhood crime information, posted pictures of lost and wanted individuals, and have notified businesses of robberies occurring in the area.

Silent Partner is a free service to the public. Subscribers manage their own profile online and can cancel at any time. Your email address and/or phone number will not be given out or used for any other purpose, and you will not receive any junk mail or spam. To subscribe to Silent Partner Alert, log onto www.canton-mi.org/publicsafety click on the Silent Partner Alert logo and follow the simple online instructions.

MEDIA CONTACT: Sergeant Scott Hilden, 734/394-5424