Amber Alert
An AMBER Alert is a public notification system used when a child is believed to be abducted and at immediate risk of harm. It is named in memory of Amber Hagerman, a young girl who was kidnapped in 1996, and aims to quickly disseminate information about the abduction to help locate the child. The alerts are issued by government agencies when specific criteria are met, such as when law enforcement has sufficient information about the child, abductor, or vehicle involved. They are transmitted through various channels, including television, radio, social media, and highway signs.
This system operates across all fifty states and extends to the District of Columbia, US Virgin Islands, and Puerto Rico. While each state has its own guidelines for issuing alerts, they generally follow standards set by the US Department of Justice. AMBER Alerts are intended to maintain urgency and are carefully issued, typically not for cases involving runaways or parental abduction. The success of the AMBER Alert program is notable, with hundreds of children recovered thanks to public awareness generated by these alerts. The concept has also been adopted internationally, demonstrating its effectiveness in child protection efforts.
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Amber Alert
An AMBER Alert is a government-issued notification that a child has been kidnapped and is in immediate danger. If a child is taken and the situation meets certain criteria, various government agencies will issue information so that the public is on the lookout for the child, the abductor, and any vehicle that is involved. The alerts are transmitted via the news media, cell phones, social media, and electronic highway signs. Started in memory of a child who was kidnapped in the late 1990s, the alerts have resulted in the recovery of hundreds of children.
Background
On January 13, 1996, nine-year-old Amber Hagerman and her five-year-old brother, Rick, were riding their bikes in a grocery store parking lot in Arlington, Texas. The little girl was pulled from her bike and taken by an unknown assailant. Five days later, her body was found floating in a creek a few miles from where she was last seen. Despite many tips from the public and concerted efforts by police, her killer was never found.
In the days following the child's death, a woman from the Dallas/Fort Worth area of Texas wanted to find a way to spread the news of a child's abduction faster and farther. Diane Simone, a massage therapist, called local radio station KDMX and inquired as to whether such information could be broadcast quickly and over a wide area, like the alerts used for emergencies or extreme weather. The radio station thought it was a good idea and pulled together a network of seven stations that would participate in an alert system. Over time, more and more stations joined until the alerts could be shared in all areas of the country. Initially credited to "a listener idea," the station confirmed in 2002 that Simone was the originator.
Overview
The alerts initiated by Simone's suggestion became known as AMBER Alerts. The alerts were named after the child whose tragic death was the impetus for the program; however, AMBER Alert is officially an acronym for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response."
The AMBER Alert program is a voluntary program coordinated by the US Department of Justice. While each state can establish its own guidelines for issuing alerts, the federal PROTECT Act of 2003 created the role of AMBER Alert Coordinator in the Department of Justice. It also gave the department the authority to establish minimum standards for the issuance of alerts.
According to the Department of Justice's guidelines, an alert should be issued when law enforcement has reason to believe a child seventeen years of age or younger has been abducted and is in immediate danger of injury or death. There must be enough information available about the child and the abductor or the vehicle involved for an alert to be issued, and the child's name and information must be entered into the National Crime Information Center system. While states have some leeway in issuing alerts, most have guidelines that are similar to those recommended by the Department of Justice. All fifty states, the District of Columbia, the US Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico are part of the system.
AMBER Alerts are generally issued only in the specific area where the child was taken and in areas where the kidnapper might travel with the child. If authorities know where the kidnapper is headed, an alert will be issued along the route and at the possible destination. Alerts can be issued in multiple police jurisdictions and across state lines, when necessary.
Initially, all AMBER Alerts were issued through broadcast media such as radio and television. Station personnel would break into regular programming to issue the alerts, as they do during severe storms and national emergencies. Internet providers also issued alerts. When cell phones came into regular use, Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) began using them to send both audible and text message alerts. However, the alerts can sometimes be stopped or limited by the mobile device user. Large lighted road signs are also used, especially on the routes the kidnapper might be traveling, and lottery billboards and digital billboards are used to transmit the alerts. The social media site Facebook also posts AMBER alerts to users' timelines to spread critical information about abducted children.
While the use of AMBER alerts is important to spread the news quickly and provide the best opportunity to recover an abducted child, authorities are careful to only issue alerts when necessary so that the alerts maintain a level of importance and urgency. As a result, AMBER alerts are not issued for runaways. They are also usually not issued when a parent is the abductor, such as when a parent takes a child who is supposed to be in the custody of the other parent.
According to the Department of Justice, AMBER Alerts have been effective in protecting children. Some kidnappers have released a child once an alert has been issued because it increased the chances of them being caught. As of December 2016, AMBER Alerts have been credited as being directly responsible for the safe return of 857 children. The success of the system has led to its adoption in other countries, including Canada and at least eighteen European nations.
Bibliography
"Amber Alert EU." The European Child Rescue Alert & Police Network on Missing Children, https://www.amberalert.eu. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
"AMBER Alert System." National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, http://www.missingkids.com/Amber. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
"AMBER Alerts." Federal Communications Commission, https://www.fcc.gov/consumers/guides/amber-plan-americas-missing-broadcast-emergency-response. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
"AMBER Alerts: America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response." US Department of Justice, https://www.amberalert.gov/about.htm. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Barber, Haylee. "The Amber Behind AMBER Alert Still Waiting for Justice 20 Years Later." NBC News, 17 Jan. 2016, http://www.nbcnews.com/feature/cold-case-spotlight/amber-behind-amber-alert-still-waiting-justice-20-years-later-n497696. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Kennedy, Bud. "20 Years, 794 Rescues: How a Hood County woman thought up Amber Alerts." Star-Telegram, 14 Jan. 2016, http://www.star-telegram.com/opinion/opn-columns-blogs/bud-kennedy/article54808010.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Khoo, Isabelle. "How Amber Alerts Got Their Name." Huffington Post Canada, 27 May 2015, http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/2015/05/27/amber-alerts-name‗n‗7444952.html. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.
Ritchie, Rene. "AMBER Alerts on Your iPhone: What They Are and How to Manage Them." iMore.com, 16 May 2016, http://www.imore.com/amber-alerts-your-iphone-what-they-are-and-how-manage-them. Accessed 17 Feb. 2017.