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Nine-year-old
Amber Hagerman was abducted while bicycling
near her grandparents' Arlington home
in 1996 and did not come back alive.
Her
body was found four days later in a
creek bed. Her throat had been cut.
 Out
of Amber's death came a new way to alert
the public quickly when a child has
been abducted -- often within the crucial
first hour or so. The system, named
for Amber, utilizes the same emergency
broadcast network that radio and TV
stations use to warn of dangerous weather
and other potentially catastrophic conditions.
The
AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership
between law-enforcement agencies and
broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin
in the most serious child-abduction
cases.
Broadcasters
use the Emergency Alert System (EAS),
formerly called the Emergency Broadcast
System, to air a description of the
missing child and suspected abductor.
Once
law enforcement has been notified about
an abducted child, they must first determine
if the case meets the AMBER Plan’s criteria
for triggering an alert.
Each
program establishes its own AMBER Plan
criteria; however, the National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children
suggests three criteria that should
be met before an Alert is activated.
•
law enforcement confirms a child
has been abducted
•
law enforcement believes the circumstances
surrounding the abduction indicate
that the child is in danger of serious
bodily harm or death
•
there is enough descriptive information
about the child, abductor, and/or suspect’s
vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast
alert will help If these criteria
are met, alert information must be put
together for public distribution.
This
information can include descriptions
and pictures of the missing child, the
suspected abductor, a suspected vehicle,
and any other information available
and valuable to identifying the child
and suspect.
The
information is then faxed to radio or
TV stations
designated as primary stations under
the Emergency Alert System (EAS).
Click
here for KCPD
Amber Plan
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