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.
AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio, satellite radio, broadcast television, 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.
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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.
Richard Hagerman (Amber's father), Bruce Siebert, and Ray Roberts approached local law enforcement agencies and Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters to encourage them to form 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. Another concerned citizen, Debbie Taylor, also faxed Detective Jim Ford of Arlington Police with this same suggestion in 1996, shortly after Amber's abduction.Template:Citationneeded This alert system, the nation's first, was put into operation in Arlington in the summer of 1997. It 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.
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Activation criteria
Each state'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 Department of Justice issues the following "guidance", which most states are said to "adhere closely to"[1]:
- 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
- It is recommended that immediate entry of AMBER Alert data be entered into the FBI's National Crime Information Center. Text information describing the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the child should be entered, and the case flagged as Child Abduction.