Eunice Police officers train to respond to child abductions

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Two Eunice Police Department officers completed an FBI training program for the Joint Child Abduction Response Deployment team.
Eunice Police Chief Randy Fontenot said Sgt.Stephanie Myers and Detective Talya Monroe completed the weeklong course held in Lafayette. The training included a mock abduction conducted in Sunset.
The team here is the third in Louisiana, he said. The teams are in the New Orleans and Shreveport-Bossier areas, he said.
About 60 people in Acadaina were trained for the team.
“If you have a missing child or child abduction with an unknown abductor the team can be activated by one of the officers,” Fontenot said.
Within an hour a trained team would arrive on the scene, he said. The team is joined by FBI agents, he said.
The teams have been in existence nationally for about 10 years, he said. In Louisiana, they have been in operation since 2015.
The Eunice officers will go back for annual refresher course, he said.
According to the FBI website, “The CARD team, created in 2006, has been deployed more than 100 times for approximately 108 victims, both domestically and — when requested — abroad.”
CARD teams are in five regional teams that cover the
Northeast, Southeast, North Central, South Central, and Western United States and are deployed at the request of a field office.
“They often deploy to the abduction site with FBI behavioral analysis experts and technical specialists in tow. CARD team agents also work closely with National Center for the Analysis of Violent Crime coordinators, members of the regional FBI-led Child Exploitation Task Forces, and representatives from our Violent Crimes Against Children Section at FBI Headquarters,” the website states.