AMBER Alert Awareness Day is today, Friday, January 13, 2017. AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. The acronym was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered.
AMBER Alerts are based on a set of criteria recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice:
- Law enforcement officials believe an abduction has occurred and the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death;
- There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child;
- The abduction is of a child age 17 years or younger.
Once issued, the alerts are distributed by broadcasters and transportation agencies. They are also sent to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which redistributes the alerts, per request by the U.S. Department of Justice, to a network of secondary distributors that includes Internet service providers, digital billboards, and others. As of September 2016, the general public, through their cell phones, is included in the secondary distribution of AMBER Alerts. This Wireless Emergency Alert program, operated by FEMA, transmits the alerts “…simultaneously to all mobile devices within range of the cellular carrier towers in the affected area. The system does not need to know your mobile number and it does not track your whereabouts; it simply broadcasts the alert, and any mobile devices that can “hear” the alert will display it to the user.”
Recent statistics show that, as of December 23, 2016, AMBER Alerts have helped rescue and safely return 857 children.
For additional information, see the following resources:
AMBER Alert Timeline
U.S. Department of Justice’s AMBER Alert
AMBER and Wireless Emergency Alerts
FCC Strengthens Wireless Emergency Alerts as a Public Safety Tool
Child Abuse and Neglect guide
Dickinson Law’s Children’s Advocacy Clinic