AMBER Alert Awareness Day 2011

First and foremost, Thursday, January 13th 2011 will mark 15 years since the abduction of Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas. For those unfamiliar with the history of this case, she was a 9 year old girl who was a victim of child abduction and murder. On January 13, 1996, she was riding her bike near her grandparents home in Arlington, Texas and was kidnapped. Four days after her abduction, a man walking his dog found Amber’s corpse in a creek bed. Her throat had been cut. It was determined that she had been alive two days before being killed. A $75,000 reward was offered for information leading to Amber’s killer, he has never been found.

This launched the Amber Alert concept, America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response. Some states use a different name based on similar abduction cases in their states such as the Levi’s Call in Georgia, Maile Amber Alert in Hawaii, and Morgan Nick Amber Alert in Arkansas.

The concept resulted in the modern day Amber Alert system. Alerts have been incorporated into modern day technology and reach the public in several formats. Local radio and t.v. stations receive alerts for broadcast. Text alerts via cellphone are available everywhere.

With the rise of the internet as a media outlet, rivaling television for viewing time, several web based Amber Alert outlets now exist. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children serves as the designated secondary distributor of all alerts. Other private internet based services have also been created to expand the reach to public. For instance this service was originally created to provide recorded Amber Alerts to internet radio stations through an automated system. Since that time it has grown to be a nationwide internet Amber Alert outlet utilizing several online technologies.

Although there is some controversy concerning the criteria needed to issue an Amber Alert, the system has proven effective in recovering abducted children and in some cases saving lives. There are those that dispute it’s effectiveness citing that alerts are not issued fast enough, the first 3 hours are most critical in a stranger abduction.

Sometimes children go missing and there is no evidence of an abduction, so no alert is issued. In some of these cases the outcome has been negative. This has been cause for a public outcry to lessen the mandated criteria. Two such recent cases are that of Phylicia Barnes and Hailey Dunn. In both cases law enforcement have asked for and been denied the issuance of an Amber Alert. In both cases the children currently remain missing.

Let’s all observe the AMBER Alert Awareness Day and educate anyone that doesn’t know about what it is and why it exists, which is to help protect and save our children. Let’s remember the 9 year old child that lost her life, Amber Hagerman, and became the namesake of the Amber Alert. Let’s remember with Amber’s family whom have not received justice for their loss, why this service is so important.