weather alerts

In the United States and Canada, an AMBER Alert is a notification to the general public, by various media outlets, of a confirmed child abduction. AMBER is a backronym for "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response", and was named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. Exceptions are in Georgia, where it is called Levi's Call^[1], and Arkansas, where it is called a Morgan Nick Amber Alert^[2]. Those plans were named after children who went missing in those states.

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, raped 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. 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"^[3]:

1. law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place
2. the child must be at risk of serious injury or death
3. there must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert
4. 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.

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.^[4] 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 & 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. ^[5]

E-mail hoaxes

A number of hoax emails have been circulated purporting to be e-mail AMBER Alerts. One particular example, the case of Penny Brown, has circulated long enough to prompt some AMBER Alert websites to post disclaimers, stating that no such alert has ever been issued, because no child by that name had ever been abducted. ^[6]

England's Child Rescue Alert system

England has developed the Child Rescue Alert, similar to the North American AMBER Alert.^[7]

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.^[8] It is based on and has alert requirements similar to the American system.^{[9][10][11][12][13][14][15][16][17]}

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. [1]

U.S. Postal stamp

The United States Postal Service issued a postage stamp commemorating AMBER Alerts in May 2006. The 39-cent stamp features a chalk pastel drawing by artist Vivienne Flesher of a reunited mother and child, with the text "AMBER ALERT saves missing children" across the pane. The stamp was released as part of the observance of National Missing Children's Day.^[18]