The Association of Public-Safety Communications Officials (APCO) International has won an Award of Excellence for its American National Standard for Calltakers When Handling Calls Pertaining to Missing and Exploited Children.

The award -- presented in the 2008 Associations Advance America (AAA) Awards program -- recognizes the standard created specifically for call takers to present the missing and/or sexually exploited child response process in a logical progression from the initial call through the first response. This voluntary national standard, available to download on APCO International's Web site free of charge, is designed to be an important tool for agencies to enhance training, policies and procedures.

In an effort to develop best-practice guidelines for handling calls pertaining to missing and/or sexually exploited children, a joint steering committee on Call Center Best Practices in Cases of Missing and Sexually Exploited Children was developed. Members of the committee include APCO International, the National Academies of Emergency Medical Dispatch (NAEMD), the National AMBER Alert Initiative (U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs and Fox Valley Technical College), the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC), and the National Emergency Number Association (NENA). These best-practice guidelines have been submitted through the APCO American National Standard (ANS) process facilitated by APCO's Standards Development Committee (SDC) and received designation from the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) as an ANS on December 19, 2007.

Now in its 18th year, the prestigious Associations Advance America (AAA) Awards program recognizes associations that propel America forward - with innovative projects in education, skills training, standards setting, business and social innovation, knowledge creation, citizenship and community service. Although association activities have a powerful impact on everyday life, they often go unnoticed by the general public.