Out of tragedy has come a really great tool for help with kidnapped kids. It's been in place here for the last years and has helped bring kids home.
There is talk about it being nationwide soon
The only thing I think would be better is to expand it to include at risk adults who have mental or physical disabilities.
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Amber alert plan will go statewide
Perry says system based on D-FW model will be running within month
08/13/2002
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN The Amber alert notification system is going statewide, the legacy of a 9-year-old Arlington girl whose abduction and murder in 1996 brought police and broadcasters together to fight such crimes.
"Every minute counts when a child is abducted," Gov. Rick Perry said Monday as he announced the program that is expected to be running within a month. "There is no more urgent cause than that of finding an innocent, abducted child and returning that child to their loved ones."
The system will build on existing programs, including the original Amber alert launched by Dallas-Fort Worth area police and broadcasters in 1997, after Amber Hagerman was snatched from her bike by a stranger in a pickup, then found dead in a drainage ditch four days later.
Also Online
Video: Shelley Kofler reports
"I think she's looking down on it and smiling," said Amber's grandmother, Glenna Whitson. "It was a tragedy, but if even one child is saved, some good can come out of it."
The original Amber alert program and others like it have been credited with helping to recover 21 children across the nation, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The new program, to be run through the Department of Public Safety, is designed to piggyback on the emergency system used to announce weather warnings, natural disasters and other emergencies.
When a local police agency determines that a child younger than 18 has been abducted and is in danger, it can notify the Department of Public Safety, which will alert police agencies and key radio and television broadcasters, which will relay the alert to broadcasters within 200 miles of the abduction.
The state program raises the age of children whose abductions will activate the alert. The guideline from the original Amber alert program was younger than 16.
Members of the Texas Association of Broadcasters have agreed to broadcast the emergency alerts and have shouldered the cost of technology used for the statewide communications, said Ann Arnold, a spokeswoman for the broadcasters. Existing state programs are absorbing other costs.
For the first time, the new program will let law enforcement put the alerts on electronic highway information message signs maintained by the state Transportation Department, officials said.
In addition, the state will work to make sure all police departments have access to www.beyondmissing.com an internet-based information-sharing network.
Texas will be the 21st state with a statewide Amber alert system, according to www.AmberAlertNow.org which lobbies for such programs.
The announcement Monday offered a brief respite from the knockdown rhetoric of the Texas governor's race, with Mr. Perry and Democrat Tony Sanchez supporting the Amber network.
"Texas should use every tool available to us to locate missing children, including helping local communities implement a statewide alert system," Mr. Sanchez said
Mr. Perry said the idea of putting missing children's photos on lottery tickets, proffered by Mr. Sanchez, was worth considering.
Officials said the idea for the statewide system has been on the drawing board for months but was completed on a wave of public attention after recent abductions.
On Aug. 2, two kidnapped California teenagers were safely rescued as a result of the Amber alert program: Electronic highway signs there flashed a description of the kidnapper's vehicle and its license plate number. An animal control agent saw the vehicle and notified police and the teenagers were rescued.
It's important for programs such as the Texas Amber alert to be formed while the issue is in the news, said Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in California in 1993.
"We're in a position now, with everybody focused on this issue," he said. "It's not about politics. It's about timing."
There is talk about it being nationwide soon
The only thing I think would be better is to expand it to include at risk adults who have mental or physical disabilities.
*--------------------------------------------
Amber alert plan will go statewide
Perry says system based on D-FW model will be running within month
08/13/2002
By PETE SLOVER / The Dallas Morning News
AUSTIN The Amber alert notification system is going statewide, the legacy of a 9-year-old Arlington girl whose abduction and murder in 1996 brought police and broadcasters together to fight such crimes.
"Every minute counts when a child is abducted," Gov. Rick Perry said Monday as he announced the program that is expected to be running within a month. "There is no more urgent cause than that of finding an innocent, abducted child and returning that child to their loved ones."
The system will build on existing programs, including the original Amber alert launched by Dallas-Fort Worth area police and broadcasters in 1997, after Amber Hagerman was snatched from her bike by a stranger in a pickup, then found dead in a drainage ditch four days later.
Also Online
Video: Shelley Kofler reports
"I think she's looking down on it and smiling," said Amber's grandmother, Glenna Whitson. "It was a tragedy, but if even one child is saved, some good can come out of it."
The original Amber alert program and others like it have been credited with helping to recover 21 children across the nation, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
The new program, to be run through the Department of Public Safety, is designed to piggyback on the emergency system used to announce weather warnings, natural disasters and other emergencies.
When a local police agency determines that a child younger than 18 has been abducted and is in danger, it can notify the Department of Public Safety, which will alert police agencies and key radio and television broadcasters, which will relay the alert to broadcasters within 200 miles of the abduction.
The state program raises the age of children whose abductions will activate the alert. The guideline from the original Amber alert program was younger than 16.
Members of the Texas Association of Broadcasters have agreed to broadcast the emergency alerts and have shouldered the cost of technology used for the statewide communications, said Ann Arnold, a spokeswoman for the broadcasters. Existing state programs are absorbing other costs.
For the first time, the new program will let law enforcement put the alerts on electronic highway information message signs maintained by the state Transportation Department, officials said.
In addition, the state will work to make sure all police departments have access to www.beyondmissing.com an internet-based information-sharing network.
Texas will be the 21st state with a statewide Amber alert system, according to www.AmberAlertNow.org which lobbies for such programs.
The announcement Monday offered a brief respite from the knockdown rhetoric of the Texas governor's race, with Mr. Perry and Democrat Tony Sanchez supporting the Amber network.
"Texas should use every tool available to us to locate missing children, including helping local communities implement a statewide alert system," Mr. Sanchez said
Mr. Perry said the idea of putting missing children's photos on lottery tickets, proffered by Mr. Sanchez, was worth considering.
Officials said the idea for the statewide system has been on the drawing board for months but was completed on a wave of public attention after recent abductions.
On Aug. 2, two kidnapped California teenagers were safely rescued as a result of the Amber alert program: Electronic highway signs there flashed a description of the kidnapper's vehicle and its license plate number. An animal control agent saw the vehicle and notified police and the teenagers were rescued.
It's important for programs such as the Texas Amber alert to be formed while the issue is in the news, said Marc Klaas, whose daughter Polly was kidnapped and murdered in California in 1993.
"We're in a position now, with everybody focused on this issue," he said. "It's not about politics. It's about timing."
