Assistance with Missing Children Cases

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children works with law enforcement agencies at local, state, federal, and international levels to help bring missing children home by providing technical assistance, training, and by helping maximize use of all available investigative and technological resources.

Resources available through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children include:

9-1-1 Call Center Partner Program. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides technical assistance, training, and educational materials to help 9-1-1 Call Centers effectively respond to reports of missing and/or sexually exploited children.

Attempted Abductions.  The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children analysts confirm and track incidents of attempted abductions of children, as well as, Sexual Assaults, Indecent Exposures, Short-term Abductions (Abduct & Release) and any other suspicious incidents involving children. 

AMBER Alert. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children offers technical assistance and training, in concert with the U.S. Department of Justice, to all AMBER Alert plans. We also disseminate AMBER Alert messages to secondary communications distributors.

Case Analysis. Using the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children databases, external sources, and geographic databases, our analysts track leads, identify patterns among cases, and help coordinate investigations by linking cases together.

Forensic Assistance. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides age-progressed photographs of missing children; reconstructed facial images of unidentified, deceased children; and assistance to families, law enforcement, and medical examiners to resolve long-term missing children cases.

Family Advocacy Services. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides technical assistance, referrals, and crisis intervention services for families, law enforcement, and family advocacy agencies.

Family Reunification Assistance. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children can help arrange transportation free of charge to reunite children with families who have exhausted personal resources during the search process. This service is made possible through NCMEC’s private-sector transportation partners: American Airlines^®, Amtrak, Continental Airlines^®, and Greyhound^®.

Hotline: 1-800-THE-LOST^® (1-800-843-5678). The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children operates the Hotline 24 hours/7 days a week to record lead and sighting information from the public, help professionals and families searching for missing children, and assist in sexual exploitation cases.

Infant Abduction Prevention Program. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides infant abduction prevention training to nursing associations, hospital security associations, and law enforcement agencies. We also provide investigative assistance to law enforcement on infant abduction cases.

International Family Abduction Services. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children assists families, law enforcement, attorneys, and others in finding and recovering children who are the victims of international abduction.

Project ALERT. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children coordinates Project Alert, America’s Law Enforcement Retiree Team, which is comprised of skilled, retired, law enforcement officers who provide free, on-site assistance to active law enforcement.

Missing-Child Clearinghouse Program. Each of the 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, U.S. Virgin Islands, Canada, and the Netherlands, provides resources for missing children, their families, and the professionals who serve them. The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children provides training and technical support to assist them with missing children investigations.

Team Adam. Team Adam sends experienced, investigative specialists to the sites of serious child abductions and child sexual exploitation cases, to advise and assist local investigators.