Republican Gubernatorial nominee Craig Benson teamed up with law enforcement officials today to call for a better child protection system in New Hampshire. Correspondent Roger Wood reports.
Benson said his administration would focus on developing programs to curtail child abductions and exploitation. Of particular interest, he said, is the Amber alert system, used in many states to make people aware of missing children.
(SOT Benson) :08
"We can do it, for no money actually, by working together and finding new ways to get this done, both with the help of law enforcement and broadcasters."
The amber alert uses existing Emergency Alert System equipment in all radio and Television stations to broadcast messages about abducted children. It is not yet operating in New Hampshire.
(SOT Benson) :15
"We can also do it in ways that nobody else has thought of. For instance, printing out broadcasts on the back of sweepstakes tickets. We print 70 thousand a day. We can also work it so that we broadcast to utility workers who are around the the towns every single day to their pagers."
Among those appearing with Benson was Portsmouth police chief Brad Russ, who has been working on a statewide initiative to activate the amber alert system.
(Russ) :18
"Studies show that when kids are abducted by individuals who are going to harm them and that's their intention, we have less than 24 hours to save them And this program needs to be in place, and it needs to be in place now. We can't wait for another tragic event to get people motivated in this state to get this program going."
Russ said he's also worked with state and local agencies to create a multidisciplinary approach to investigating child abuse. That approach teams investigators with agencies and social workers that can keep abused children safe and help them heal. Benson said he?s interested in modeling statewide programs on Russ?s work. But the Republican candidate is not yet ready to invest more money in New Hampshire?s child protective services. A court-appointed panel has concluded the state needs to hire more workers to watch over abused children. The Benson campaign says it wants to be sure there?s a vision and a plan in place for the state Division of Children, Youth and Families before hiring those workers. For NHPR News, this is Roger Wood in Portsmouth.
