Twenty-five years ago, Carlton Bean, Russ Thomas and Rhett Lolley were kindergarteners taking part in the Pike County Sheriff’s Office’s first Child Identification Program.

Today, those three students are now investigators for the Pike County Sheriff’s Office. Russ, Thomas, is the son of Sheriff Russell Thomas.

“I started this program when Russ was in kindergarten,” Thomas said. “This year is the 25th anniversary of our Child Identification Kit program. We go out to all schools in the county and fingerprint the children, collect DNA and put it in a kit for the children to take home to their parents. The parents then fill out personal information about the child and put a current photo in the kit. In the event a child goes missing or is abducted, the parents have all of the information needed by law enforcement in that kit.”

Thomas said each year, the PCSO goes to Banks Elementary, Pike County Elementary, Goshen Elementary, Troy Elementary and elementary schools at Pike Liberal, New Life Christian and Covenant Christian to fingerprint children for the kits.

“In 25 years, we’ve fingerprinted more than 11,000 children,” Thomas said. “We’ve touched a lot of families through this program. For the children, for some of them it’s their first time away from home and interacting with law enforcement officers. It’s a chance for us to bond with the children. We enjoy doing it and the children have fun interacting with us.”

Thomas said Bean, Russ Thomas, and Lolley all graduated from Pike County Schools, Troy University and served in various branches of the military before joining the PCSO. In law enforcement, their careers followed a similar trajectory, with all three beginning work as jailers for the PCSO and working their way up through the ranks to investigator.