Code Adam

Last updated
Code Adam logo Code Adam.png
Code Adam logo

Code Adam is a missing-child safety program in the United States and Canada, originally created by Walmart retail stores in 1994. [1] This type of alert is generally regarded as having been named in memory of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John Walsh (the host of Fox's America's Most Wanted ).

Contents

Adam was abducted from a Sears department store in Hollywood, Florida in 1981. [2] A search was undertaken by Adam's mother, grandmother, and store employees, and public address calls were made for him every 10 to 15 minutes. After approximately 90 minutes of fruitless searching, local law enforcement was called. Sixteen days later, Adam's severed head was found; his body was never recovered.

Today, many department stores, retail shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, amusement parks, hospitals, and museums participate in the Code Adam program. Legislation enacted by Congress in 2003 now mandates that all federal office buildings and base or post exchanges (BX or PX) on military bases adopt the program. [3] Walmart, along with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) and the departments of several state Attorneys General, have offered to assist in training workshops in order for other companies to implement the program.

Process

Companies that do implement the program generally place a Code Adam decal at the front of the business. Employees at these businesses are trained to take the following steps, according to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children:

  1. If a visitor reports a child is missing, a detailed description of the child is obtained, which should include their name, age, hair color, eye color, approximate height and weight, clothing, and a photo if the visitor has one. Care is paid to the shoes, as they are harder to change than clothing.
  2. The employee goes to the nearest in-house telephone and pages Code Adam, describing the child's physical features and clothing. The visitor will be directed to the entrance to help identify the child. Following the business's Code Adam plan, some employees will monitor entrances and note down potentially useful information, while others search the business in sections. All employees will ask children for their names, and if the adult accompanying them is their parent. If an adult is seen attempting to leave with a child, employees must not physically intervene, to prevent putting the child or others at risk of immediate harm.
  3. Other than cashiers, all employees search likely hiding places for the missing child.
  4. The police are immediately called.
  5. If the child is located and appears to be lost or unharmed, their identity is verified.
  6. If the child is located with an adult that is not their parent or guardian, reasonable efforts will be employed to delay the departure of the adult without endangering staff or customer.
  7. After the child is either positively identified and reunited with their guardian or all collected information has been turned over to the police, an employee will page store-wide again to cancel the Code Adam.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amber alert</span> US based child abduction emergency alert system

An Amber alert or a child abduction emergency alert is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in the United States of America.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Department store</span> Retail establishment; building that offers a wide range of consumer goods

A department store is a retail establishment offering a wide range of consumer goods in different areas of the store, each area ("department") specializing in a product category. In modern major cities, the department store made a dramatic appearance in the middle of the 19th century, and permanently reshaped shopping habits, and the definition of service and luxury. Similar developments were under way in London, in Paris and in New York City (Stewart's).

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Murder of Adam Walsh</span> 1981 child murder in Hollywood, Florida, US

Adam John Walsh was an American child who was abducted from a Sears department store at the Hollywood Mall in Hollywood, Florida, on July 27, 1981. His severed head was found two weeks later in a drainage canal alongside Highway 60 / Yeehaw Junction in rural Indian River County, Florida. His death garnered national interest and was made into the 1983 television film Adam, seen by 38 million people in its original airing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">John Walsh (television host)</span> American television presenter (born 1945)

John Edward Walsh, Jr. is an American television presenter, criminologist, victims' rights activist, and the host/creator of America's Most Wanted. He is known for his anti-crime activism, with which he became involved following the murder of his son, Adam, in 1981; in 2008, deceased serial killer Ottis Toole was officially named as Adam's killer. Walsh was part-owner of the now defunct National Museum of Crime and Punishment in Washington, D.C. He also anchored an investigative documentary series, The Hunt with John Walsh, which debuted on CNN in 2014.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Missing person</span> Person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed

A missing person is a person who has disappeared and whose status as alive or dead cannot be confirmed as their location and condition are unknown. A person may go missing through a voluntary disappearance, or else due to an accident, crime, death in a location where they cannot be found, or many other reasons. In most parts of the world, a missing person will usually be found quickly. While criminal abductions are some of the most widely reported missing person cases, these account for only 2–5% of missing children in Europe.

The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) is a private, nonprofit organization established in 1984 by the United States Congress. In September 2013, the United States House of Representatives, United States Senate, and the President of the United States reauthorized the allocation of $40 million in funding for the organization as part of Missing Children's Assistance Reauthorization Act of 2013. The current chair of the organization is Jon Grosso of Kohl's. NCMEC handles cases of missing minors from infancy to young adults through age 20.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Big-box store</span> Physically large retail establishment

A big-box store is a physically large retail establishment, usually part of a chain of stores. The term sometimes also refers, by extension, to the company that operates the store. The term "big-box" references the typical appearance of buildings occupied by such stores.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Store-within-a-store</span> Retail concept

A store-within-a-store, also referred to as store-in-store or shop-in-shop, refers to a space within a larger retail store, designated for use by a specific brand to feature its products, clearly branded with signs and other branding elements like color, materials, layout, etc. Such a space may be a section of the main area of the store, or it may have the form of an enclosed store with "walls" an entrance, much like a store in a shopping mall.

The Avalon Mall is a Canadian shopping mall located in St. John's, Newfoundland and Labrador on Kenmount Road. With over 500,000 square feet (46,000 m2), two floors, and 142 stores, it is the largest shopping mall in Newfoundland and Labrador. The mall opened on November 1, 1967, and is owned by Crombie REIT.

Walmart Canada is a Canadian retail corporation and the Canadian branch of the U.S.-based multinational retail conglomerate Walmart. Headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, it was founded on March 17, 1994, with the purchase of the Woolco Canada chain from the F. W. Woolworth Company.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act</span> U.S. federal statute

The Adam Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act is a federal statute that was signed into law by U.S. President George W. Bush on July 27, 2006. The Walsh Act organizes sex offenders into three tiers according to the crime committed, and mandates that Tier 3 offenders update their whereabouts every three months with lifetime registration requirements. Tier 2 offenders must update their whereabouts every six months with 25 years of registration, and Tier 1 offenders must update their whereabouts every year with 15 years of registration. Failure to register and update information is a felony under the law. States are required to publicly disclose information of Tier 2 and Tier 3 offenders, at minimum. It also contains civil commitment provisions for sexually dangerous people.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">River Falls Mall</span> Shopping mall in Indiana, United States

River Falls Mall is a shopping center in Clarksville, Indiana, on Lewis and Clark Parkway. From its opening in 1990 until 2006, the center was an enclosed mall, with 762,000 square feet (70,800 m2) of gross leasable area. It originally comprised multiple entertainment venues and retail. After losing the majority of its tenants, River Falls Mall was redeveloped in 2006 as a power center, comprising Dick's Sporting Goods, Old Time Pottery, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and Bass Pro Shops.

The House Caucus on Missing and Exploited Children (HCMEC) was formed in order to assist the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and coordinate United States federal legislation preventing child abduction and exploitation of children, including prosecution for possession of online pornography and solicitation of minors for sexual activity. According to statistics from the U.S. Department of Justice, of the estimated 24 million child Internet users, one in five children online is sexually solicited, yet only one in four of these tells a parent or guardian.

Kevin Andrew Collins gained national attention as one of the first missing children to appear on milk cartons and on the cover of national publications, such as Newsweek magazine in 1984. His abduction from San Francisco city streets helped bring to light the plight of missing and exploited children in the U.S.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">College Square Mall (Tennessee)</span> Shopping mall in Tennessee, United States

College Square is an indoor regional shopping mall located in Morristown, Tennessee. College Square is owned by Time Equities Inc and managed by Urban Retail Properties. It features approximately 50 stores and restaurants including AMC College Square 12.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mountain Farms Mall</span> Shopping mall in Massachusetts, United States

Mountain Farms Mall is a shopping center in Hadley, Massachusetts, United States, with approximately 12 stores. It is located on Route 9, at 335 Russell Street in Hadley, Massachusetts, between Amherst and Northampton, approximately five miles east of Exit 19 off I-91. The mall is owned by S.R. Weiner and WS Development.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Target Canada</span> Defunct Canadian discount department store chain

Target Canada Co. was the Canadian subsidiary of the Target Corporation, the eighth-largest retailer in the United States. Formerly headquartered in Mississauga, Ontario, the subsidiary formed with the acquisition of Zellers store leases from the Hudson's Bay Company (HBC) in January 2011. Target Canada opened its first store in March 2013, and by January 2015 was operating 133 locations throughout Canada. Its main competition included Walmart Canada, Loblaws, Shoppers Drug Mart, and Canadian Tire.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Harwin Drive</span>

Harwin Drive is a road in Houston, Texas. The Greater Houston Convention and Visitors Bureau identifies the section between Interstate 69/U.S. Route 59 and Beltway 8 as being a shopping district.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Retail apocalypse</span> Widespread decline in physical retail stores

Retail apocalypse refers to the closing of numerous brick-and-mortar retail stores, especially those of large chains, beginning around 2010 and accelerating due to the mandatory closures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The ADAM Automated Delivery of Alerts on Missing Children Program, commonly known as the ADAM Program, is an alert system that is used to help recover missing children throughout the United States. In 1981 Adam Walsh, son of John and Revé Walsh, went missing. His parents set up the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) in 1984 and later partnered with LexisNexis Risk Solutions who developed and donated the alert system program to NCMEC, which was named in honour of Adam Walsh. The program has been operating since 2000.

References

  1. "Code Adam". National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. Retrieved 13 July 2019.
  2. "When this boy was abducted from a mall, the crime became an all-time mystery". Miami Herald. 3 July 2016. Retrieved 29 June 2017.(subscription required)
  3. "Code Adam Alert Program". GSA. U.S. General Services Administration. Archived from the original on 17 July 2017. Retrieved 29 June 2017.