Tracking children goes high-tech Weber sheriff first in state to use system BY JORDAN MUHLESTEIN Standard-Examiner staff jmuhlestein@standard.net OGDEN Weber County has a new tool to identify and protect children and other at-risk individuals. The Children's Identification and Location Database (CHILD) Project system was installed Friday at the Weber County Sheriff's Office, the first law enforcement agency in the state to have the system. The system, operated by the Nation's Missing Children Organization, uses specialized equipment to obtain a scan of a person's iris, the colored part of the eye. The information is put in a national database. Sheriff Brad Slater said his office is often asked to help parents with child-identification programs, and having the record of a child's iris scan available nationally will give searchers one more tool to find lost children. "We do these things as a community service," he said. "This is another component of crime prevention." Slater said the new program will not replace fingerprints and DNA samples, but will serve as a complement to them. The $25,000 system, which includes an iris- ROBERT JOHNSON/Standard-Examiner Chalisse Anderson, 7, looks into a camera Friday to get a high-resolution digital photograph of her iris with the help of CHILD Project funding development officer Patricia Lawton (center) and CHILD President Sean Mullin (left). scanning camera and a laptop computer, is portable and will be used throughout the county. To pay for the equipment, the sheriff's office spent $10,000, and a $15,000 corporate match was organized by the CHILD Project, Slater said. "When we learned about this in March, we reevaluated the budget to be able to match the corporate donations," he said. The system will first be available to the public Aug. 9 at the Weber County Fair, Slater said. Deputies will man a booth offering iris scans. Once children's information is in the national database, parents will receive printed copies, which include bar codes with their iris information, Capt. Klint Anderson said. The information can then be kept with an emergency identification kit including a photograph, fingerprints and a DNA sample. After the fair, the system will be made available to community groups, Anderson said. The system will be focused on helping the at-risk populations of children and the mentally impaired, such as those with Alzheimer's who wander