A steady supply of children kept Emporia Masonic Lodge 12 members busy as they worked for the first time to make new child identification packets Saturday at the Lyon County Free Fair.
Each packet handed to parents in the west Quonset hut held an assortment of means for identifying children, including a short video and a photo of the child, an audio track of his or her voice, fingerprints and a swab containing the child’s DNA.
“When we get finished, they have a CD they can take,” said Kim Crofoot, one of several Masons at the booth on Saturday.
“Also, we have a printout, and you’ve got some wallet cards you can carry in your wallet or purse,” Mason Lane Ryno added.
The Masons retain none of the information in a database.
“We gather the information, but all that data is given back to the parent,” Ryno said. “The only thing we keep is a permission slip. It does not go into a database.”
Ryno, formerly an Emporia Police Department sergeant in investigations, said the new, computerized version of an ID kit is far more complete, accurate and tidy than the old “Ident-a-Kid” campaigns he conducted earlier as a police officer.
“There’s no ink involved; the fingerprints are scanned in electronically,” Ryno said. “The other way was kind of hit-and-miss. This provides a lot better quality.
“A 100 percent improvement and it’s a lot easier to do, also. Less room for human error.”
The Masons will operate the Kansas Child Identification Program through Thursday as a community service to help protect area children.
“Hopefully, it’ll never need to be used,” Crofoot said.