The Alternative Press

NEW PROVIDENCE, NJ - Keeping children safe is always the first thing on every parent’s mind. Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 23, the New Providence Police assisted with that when they fingerprinted students at Salt Brook and Allen W. Roberts Elementary schools.

All of the children were eligible to be fingerprinted and they needed their parents to sign a permission slip beforehand to have it done.

Patrolman Ken Randazzo said it’s really done for the parents because in case a child does go missing they could bring the prints to the police for identification purposes. This event has been taking place for a long time in New Providence and usually the school holds it once a year.

“When the school knows it’s available, they usually use it,” he said.

Randazzo said the kids enjoy getting their hands dirty, but there are occasions when the prints are used.

“Sometimes it does happen unfortunately,” Randazzo said. “We don’t want it to.”

He said the best way to be safe is to attach a current picture of the child and a piece of hair to the copy of the prints, which will help the police if anything does happen.

While some parents are always a bit apprehensive about doing it, the majority of them allow their children to have it done, Randazzo said. There’s really no reason not to do it, he said