"What price do you put on this child?" Layton Police Lt. Quinn Moyes asked as he pointed to the photo of a toddler.
Moyes, commander of the Davis Area Child Abduction Response Team, recently helped his group locate a 1-year-old boy after his biological mother and her boyfriend kidnapped him, police said.
The CART group consists of officers from all of the county's law enforcement agencies, said Moyes.
"We're a close-knit county, and we work almost daily with each other," Moyes said.
The Davis Area CART formed two years ago, about the same time the state formed its group. Both groups work with law enforcement agencies when called to help after a child is taken.
Neither group "takes over" the investigation, Moyes said.
When a child is kidnapped, officers fight against time to get the child safely back to its parents or guardians. And the more manpower an agency has, the better the chances are for the child's return.
Utah is the leader in forming CART teams, said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, based in Alexander, Va.
The center has promoted statewide and local CART teams for the past several years, he said.
"When you have one at the local level, you reduce the response time because no distance is really traveled," Allen said. "Time is the enemy."
Police departments usually handle missing children cases, but a true child abduction case is rare, Allen said.
And in those rare cases, a child will be dead within three hours, he said.
"You can't lose time," Allen said. "You need to know what to do and where the resources are, immediately."
So no matter how large or small a police agency is, the more experts it has when a child is missing, the greater the chance of the child being returned safely, Allen said.
Layton Police Department is the largest police agency in the county, with 78 officers.
Farmington Police Department is one of the smallest agencies, with 13 officers, said Farmington Police Lt. Shane Whitaker.
The county's CART team has been called only three times in the past two years, he said.
One case involved a parent who picked up a child during recess at school and failed to check out the child through the office.
Whitaker said many times when a child is missing, it is because of a lack of communication between the child and parent.
Usually the child is found at a friend's home, a relative's or even in their own home, officers said.
It is on that rare occasion when a child is taken by someone who does not have parental rights that the county and other Top of Utah counties want to be prepared.
Weber County police chiefs are still discussing the matter, said Ogden Police Chief Jon Greiner.
"We believe in the principle of it, but we're not sure if we need to do that much training," Greiner said.
"It's always a good idea to be prepared," he said.
Roy Police Chief Greg Whinham said having a local CART team could make response time "better and quicker."
When a child is missing, officers want every resource available to find that child.
Box Elder County is still in the process of finishing the final details for forming its CART team, said Tremonton Police Detective Jeremy Rose.
"The No. 1 reason to have a local CART is time," Rose said. "Time works against you."
A CART team is a resource multiplier, Rose said.
In the Layton case, not only were police officers working the case in a training room in the police station, but a member of the Division of Child and Family Services was also available to help, Moyes said.
Also, a member of the Davis County Attorney's Office was there to answer any legal questions about procedures.
A victim's advocate was a liaison between the police and the grandmother, who had legal guardianship of the boy.
From the moment the boy was reported missing by his grandmother to the time police recovered him was three hours, Moyes said.
The couple, Kayla Roybal, 18, and David Hogan, 19, both of Layton, had planned to take the boy to Oklahoma, Moyes said.
Hogan has already pleaded guilty to a second-degree felony child abuse and is awaiting a sentence.
Both have been charged with first-degree felony kidnapping in connection with the Sept. 30 incident. Pretrial conferences in 2nd District Court in Farmington are set for Hogan on Oct. 29 and for Roybal on Nov. 5.
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