Amber Alert

 

The AMBER Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnaped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, TX, and then brutally murdered. Other states and communities soon set up their own AMBER plans as the idea was adopted across the nation.

AMBER Alert

DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE OBSERVES ANNIVERSARY OF AMBER ALERT PROGRAM
January 13, 2010

Since its creation in 1996, the AMBER Alert program has helped to find and safely recover 495 abducted children <MORE...>

The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child.

---

 

• AMBER Alert Overview

  Massachusetts Child AMBER Alert is an emergency alert system that helps recover abducted children. The Plan utilizes the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to interrupt regular programming and broadcast information that could help recover the child. Information is also broadcast on electronic signs along highways and in airports.

 

• Criteria for Issuing an AMBER Alert

  Three basic criteria must be met before the State Police will activate the plan.

• How the Public Can Help

  Stay tuned to the radio or TV, or keep your eye out for the AMBER Alert highway message boards for details. Then Be On the Look-Out (B.O.L.O.) for the individuals and vehicles involved in the abduction.

• How Does the Massachusetts AMBER Alert Work?

   

• AMBER Alert Partners

  The MSP has joined together with several partners to establish a voluntary, cooperative program, that will send an emergency alert to the public when a child has been abducted and it is believed that the child's life is in serious danger of bodily harm or death.

More than 407 Kidnapped children have returned home thanks to Amber Alerts-and caring people like you. 

Click here to Download Amber Alerts to your cell phone

• Guidelines

Legislation

The Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today (PROTECT) Act, signed into law on April 30, 2003, comprehensively strengthened law enforcement’s ability to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish violent crimes committed against children. The PROTECT Act codified the previously-established National AMBER Alert Coordinator role in the Department of Justice.

• PROTECT Act (AMBER Alert excerpt)
• AMBER Alert Legal Database