 |
What is
the AMBER Plan?
 The AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement
agencies and the Montana Broadcasters Association and its
members to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious
child-abduction cases.
Broadcasters are notified by the Criminal Investigation
Division of the Department of Justice and then air a description
of the abducted child and suspected abductor.
The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the
entire community to assist in the search for and safe return
of the child.
System upgrades are currently in development that will allow
automatic activation of the system as well as geographic
tracking via satellite that will reset the alert any time
that a sighting is made.
Why Was the AMBER Plan Created?
The AMBER Plan was created in 1997 as a powerful legacy
to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was
kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle
in Arlington, Texas.
The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents
contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested
they broadcast special "alerts" over the airwaves so
that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.
In response to the community's concern for the safety of
local children, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio
Managers teamed up with local law-enforcement agencies in
northern Texas and developed this innovative early warning
system to help find abducted children. Statistics show
that, when abducted, a child's greatest enemy is time.
How Does the AMBER Plan Work?
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.
Four criteria must be met in order to activate an Amber
Alert in Montana: - Amber Alerts are only activated for
abducted children 17 years of age or younger
- 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 and e-mailed to all Montana
broadcast stations and a call is made to the stations by
the DOJ to confirm receipt of the information.
Radio stations interrupt programming to announce the Alert,
and television stations run a "crawl" on the screen
along with a picture of the child when available.
The information is also placed on the Montana Amber Alert web
page http://www.doj.state.mt.us/enforcement/missingpersonclearinghouse.asp .
Members of the public may now sign up to receive Amber Alerts via email, cell phone, pagers, or fax by visiting http://www.montanaamberalert.com. |
|
