MIAMI (NewsNation Now) — The Miami-Dade Police Department is using an innovative new tool to help solve child homicides.
Police are distributing cards, similar in size and shape to baseball cards, featuring the name and face of a child involved in an unsolved murder case.
There is also a QR code on the back.
The police hope that distributing these cards will help lead to a break in the cases, delivering justice for the many lives lost.
Officially called the Palm Card QR Code Investigative Flyer, it is a first-of-its-kind initiative.
In a modern-day version of the milk carton, the QR codes work the same as those that have replaced paper menus in restaurants during the pandemic.
By using the camera on a cellphone, scanning the QR code provides access to additional information on the open homicide cases, photos of the victims as well as details of reward money available.
“You can also submit tips anonymously there.” NewsNation reporter Ileana Diaz said during an appearance on “Morning in America”.
“In South Florida, there are hundreds of unsolved murders,” Diaz said. “And these QR codes will highlight children’s cases first to get traction, and hopefully more people will submit tips to solve these murders.”
Miami-Dade police hope this new crime-fighting tool will help bring families the closure they never had.
“That hurt, that pain never goes away,” Major Jorge Aguiar of the Miami-Dade police Homicide Bureau said. “So for them to know that their child is being highlighted is something that to them gives them great satisfaction because we all know that at the end of the day, there’s nothing that any law enforcement officer can ever give you that complete closure because of the loss that you had.”