By Patrick Webb...........According to Wikipedia, North American Masonic lodges have created the Masonic Child Identification Programs (CHIP) as a charitable endeavor to help locate and identify missing children. The Grand Lodge provides financial assistance for CHIP programs, which are run by volunteers from lower-level lodges and are manned by law enforcement and dentistry professionals.
The CHIP programs give parents the option to free-of-charge assemble an identification kit for their child. The kit includes a tooth impression card, a DNA sample, a VHS video, computer disk, or DVD of the child, a fingerprint card, and a physical description of the child. In the event that a kid is reported missing, the kit’s goal is to give the general public and law authorities access to vital information. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has praised the initiative.
In addition to a video recording the child’s appearance and voice, the VHS tape or DVD contains information specific to the child’s age group that can help locate kids who might be missing for causes other than abduction.?
State and local law enforcement organizations have used the Masonic Child ID Program as their example for creating this service. Masonic CHIP differs from other programs in that municipal and police enforcement organizations often enter all information they get, including fingerprints, into a database.
The Masonic Child ID Program claims they maintain strong confidentiality, and after writing the DVD data, all information on portable computers is deleted from the systems. In order to get a replacement DVD or VHS tape, a parent or legal representative must go to another Masonic Child ID event.
Here is a screenshot from the GACHiP website:
The program claims they want:
- Full color digital photographs showing various poses of the child: These color photographs can be circulated by the police to the media in the case of abduction and can be used in the Amber Alert Program.
- A complete set of digital fingerprints: Everyone’s fingerprints are unique and are a well-known tool for recovery, investigation, and identification.
- DNA and Scent: The swift recovery of a missing person can be aided by tracking dogs.
- Information about the child including: Distinguishing features such as hair and eye color, scars, etc. The disk will also contain contact information for parents or guardians.
All of the identifying information collected at the event about the child is given to the child’s family. The GACHIP program retains only the permission slip that must be signed prior to participation in the event. AII other data is permanently erased after the child’s document is prepared.
Here’s a link to the official website:
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