Code Adam

Code Adam is a nationally-recognized "missing child" child-safety program, originally created and promoted by Wal-Mart retail stores, starting in 1994. It is named in memory of Adam Walsh, the 6-year-old son of John Walsh, who was abducted from a Florida department store and later found murdered in 1981. Today, many department stores, retail shops, shopping malls, supermarkets, amusement parks, and museums volunteer in the Code Adam program. Also, legislation enacted by Congress in 2003 mandated that all federal office buildings employ the program.

When a parent or guardian becomes separated from a child, he or she locates and notifies the nearest employee and gives the employee a description of the child, including gender, age, eye and hair color, height, weight, clothes the child is wearing (including shoes, if possible), and any distinguishing characteristics. The employee goes to the nearest in-store phone and immediately announces "Code Adam" over the paging system, along with the description given by the guardian. For example, an employee might announce over the paging system, "Attention all associates, we have a Code Adam. The child is an 8-year-old female; has blue eyes and blond hair; is 3 feet, 9 inches tall; weighs 60 pounds; and is wearing a white shirt, blue jeans, and pink sneakers. If found, please bring her to the Courtesy Desk immediately." Most stores inform their employees not to announce the first or last name of the missing child, even if the guardian may provide it before the announcement is made. Doing so may give the potential abductor more information than previously had.

After the announcement is made, designated employees will closely monitor and/or lock all store exits. For example, at Wal-Mart stores, the "people greeter" will monitor the front doors, the employees of the Garden Center department and Tire & Lube Express will guard their appropriate exits, and the store and department managers will monitor any emergency and remaining exits. All other employees will immediately put their normal work on hold, apologizing to their customers if need be, and quickly search their surroundings for a child matching the description given. The bathrooms and parking lots are areas to be searched especially diligently.

If the child is found, he or she is immediately taken to customer service to be reunited with his or her guardian, and the Code Adam alert is cancelled via another announcement. If the child is found to be in the company of someone other than a guardian, the local authorities are contacted. If possible, the stranger is detained by store employees and kept from leaving the store, or if not possible, employees will provide as much detail about the assailant as possible to the authorities. If the child is not found within 10 minutes of the announcement and search, local authorities are contacted for their assistance.

Since the Code Adam program began, it has been a powerful preventive tool against child abductions and lost children in more than 40,000 stores across the nation. Wal-Mart, with the help of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and many State Attorney General departments, has generously offered other companies the opportunity to implement this powerful tool against child abduction and harm.

For additional information regarding Code Adam or other national child-safety programs, contact the [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children] online or by phone at +1 (703) 274-3900.