The scenario included a 10-year-old girl who was staying at the Hilton Hotel with her father in Harrisburg. The little girl went outside to look at the statue in front of the county courthouse and that’s when the fake abduction began.
Police and emergency response teams in Dauphin County held the mock child abduction this week to provide training to prepare for the possibility of the real thing. Dauphin County District Attorney Ed Marsico held a mock press conference on this abduction this afternoon. He went over the scenario that emergency response teams went through that lasted hours. He says the point of the exercise was to give investigators an opportunity to work on a scenario that they often can’t replicate and have the chance to experience. It was set up through multiple emergency response teams , and part of it took place along Second Street and at the Hilton Hotel in Harrisburg. They also used actors to portray the child and her family to make the experience more lifelike.
Marisco says the teams learned a few lessons.
“ We felt it was important to work out some of the bugs and go over what we can do better. We learned for example, maybe we can get the victim witness people involved a little bit earlier in the process to help with the victim’s family ,” says Marsico
Marsico says in terms of actual child abductions and the use of these teams, they are usually called out about twice a year in Dauphin County.