AMBER Alert
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-->In the United States and Canada, an AMBER Alert is a notification to the general public, by various media outlets, that a confirmed abduction of a child has happened. AMBER is a backronym for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response", and was named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. The one exception is in Georgia, where GEMA calls it a Levi's Call[link], after a boy who went missing in that state.
AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio stations, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System, as well as via e-mail, electronic traffic-condition signs, and wireless device SMS text messages. The decision to declare an AMBER Alert is made by the police organization investigating the abduction. Public information in an AMBER Alert usually consists of the name and description of the abductee, a description of the suspected abductor, and a description and license plate number of the abductor's vehicle, if available.
History
After Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered, citizens of her community learned that local law enforcement had information that might have helped locate her shortly after she was abducted, but had no means to distribute this information. Many suggested that upon the abduction of a child, that information be immediately broadcast over the radio, much like a weather alert, to give pertinent details to citizens.
The concept was further developed by law enforcement and broadcasters to encourage a voluntary association whereby information about a child abduction could be quickly broadcast to the child's community so that the community could help look for the abducted child. This alert system, the nation's first, was unveiled at Dallas City Hall on October 30, 1996 and was initially called the "Amber Plan". Amber's parents were in attendance, along with then Arlington Police Chief David Kunkle, radio personnel, law enforcement representatives from over 20 north Texas agencies, and R.W. "Skip" Schmidt who was the president of the Association of Radio Managers at that time, and who sponsored the plan. (see www.star-telegram.com archives) The plan was modeled after Texas tornado and hazardous weather alerts and used the existing emergency radio and TV response network. Various U.S. states and communities followed suit, developing similar systems named after Amber Hagerman.
Activation criteria
To avoid both false alarms and having alerts ignored as a "wolf cry", the criteria for issuing an alert are rather strict.Each state's or province's AMBER alert plan sets its own criteria for activation, meaning that there are differences between alerting agencies as to which incidents are considered to justify the use of the system. However, the U.S. Department of Justice issues the following "guidance", which most states are said to "adhere closely to"[link]:
- law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place
- the child is at risk of serious injury or death
- there is sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert
- the child must be 17 years old or younger
The RCMP's requirements in Canada are nearly identical to the above list, with the obvious exception that the RCMP instead of the FBI is normally notified. One may notify the other if there is reason to suspect that the border may be crossed.
False alarms
Advocates for missing children are concerned that the public is becoming desensitized to AMBER Alerts because of a large number of false alarms — where police issue an AMBER Alert without strictly adhering to the U.S. Department of Justice's activation guidelines.A Scripps Howard study of the 233 AMBER Alerts issued in the United States in 2004 found that most issued alerts did not meet the Department of Justice's criteria. Fully 50% (117 alerts) were categorized by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children as being "family abductions," very often a parent involved in a custody dispute. There were 48 alerts for children who had not been abducted at all, but were lost, ran away, involved in family misunderstandings (for instance, two instances where the child was with grandparents), or as the result of hoaxes. Another 23 alerts were issued in cases where police didn't know the name of the allegedly abducted child, often as the result of misunderstandings by witnesses who reported an abduction.
Only 70 of the 233 AMBER Alerts issued in 2004 (30%) were actually children taken by strangers or who were unlawfully traveling with adults other than their legal guardians.
England's Child Rescue Alert system
England has developed a system similar to the North American AMBER Alert.In England, the counties of Hampshire, Leicestershire, Surrey, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Derbyshire, Suffolk, Thames Valley, Wiltshire, and Somerset, as well as the London Metropolitan Police Service, have adopted a similar program called the Child Rescue Alert system. Sussex was the first to launch the system, on November 14, 2002. It is based on and has alert requirements similar to the American system.
There are four key criteria in England's Child Rescue Alert system to be met before a Child Rescue Alert is issued
- The child is apparently under 18 years old.
- There is a reasonable belief that the child has been kidnapped or abducted.
- There is reasonable belief that the child is in imminent danger of serious harm or death, and
- There is sufficient information available to enable the public to assist police in locating the child.
Members of the public will be encouraged to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that may help the police in finding the abducted child. If they see anything they should call the police on 999.[link]
Web Based Ticker Amber Alert System
A web based system called Code Amber,works by adding a single line of code to web pages. Web site owners can then display active Amber Alerts to their site visitors. The tickers can be set to specific countries. The Code Amber project is provided by BigHits.com, Inc. as a free public service and providing amber code to US and Canada.[link][link]Stamp
The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp commemorating AMBER Alerts in 2006.References
External links
- [U.S. government AMBER alert site]
- [Canadian government AMBER alert site]
- [Congressional Research Service (CRS) report on Amber Alert program technology]
- [National Center for Missing and Exploited Children]
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