Amber Alerts : Are They Effective?

In 1996, a 9 year old girl, Amber Hagerman was riding her bike around the neighborhood when a neighbor heard her scream. The neighbor witnessed the little girl being pulled off her bike, by a man, and thrown into a pickup truck. The neighbor called the police, and Amber’s brother went home and notified their parents. After contacting a man who had a similar event happen to his daughter, the family began contacting the media and the FBI. Neighbors, friends and family began searching for Amber, and after the media aired information about her case, most in Arlington, Texas

“Not yet, remember, you’re aware that Ashley needs a car,” Margaret said, knowing they’d promised their granddaughter a car when her brother went away to college.

AMBER Alerts are issued after law enforcement determines that there has been abduction. Law enforcement must believe that the missing child is in danger of harm. An Alert can only be issued by law enforcement. Abductions by strangers are the most dangerous and are the primary mission of the Alert. AMBER Alerts are issued for children under the age of seventeen. Each state has its own age limits, but the majority uses seventeen as the cut off. Descriptive information is given of the missing child, the abductor, and the abductor’s vehicle used in the abduction. The missing child’s name is placed into the National Crisis Information Center (NCIC) system. Not only is the AMBER Alert named after Amber Hagerman, but AMBER also stands for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response (Child Abduction, AMBER Alert, and Crime Control Theater).

A child being kidnapped is a parent’s worst nightmare. This happens to thousands of parents each year. For this, we have a system called, AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response). This system has been around for almost twenty one years, saving hundreds of lives.

An emergency call came in at 9:45 am made by Doug Greene who is a neighbor of the victim Anna Garcia claiming that he had not seen Anna Garcia since her normal morning walk at 6:30 am the previous morning and that the dog had been barking for 2 hours, he had also mentioned that Anna Garcia was wearing a sweater when he had seen her the previous morning while experiencing a 92 degree heat wave. Mr.Greene had called Anna’s telephone with no answer, and had also rang the doorbell with no answer. The EMT and local police had arrived to the scene at 9:56 am, needing to break the door down. EMS discovered Anna Garcia laying face down, dead.

The Dallas Amber Plan was started in 1997 to help safely recover missing children police believed to have been abducted. Since then, the program has successfully recovered eight children (State of Indiana Amber Alert Plan, 2010).

The process of issuing an Amber Alert had yet to be completed when, using alternative means, the children were found safe in Canton, according to Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly, who said investigators used GPS navigation to track the woman's cell phone, which was in the vehicle.

At 1048 hours, a second call came in to 911 from juvenile, Zach Michael Robins, 13 who reported a domestic dispute at his residence located at 900 Indiana Ave, Godfrey, IL 62035. He stated, "My parents are fighting and heading to the 1300 block of Virginia Avenue where my mother 's boyfriend lives."

"Get up," I yell at him. "In this car, in this family, we are not afraid of

Before the Amber Alert, People from all over the United States had to rely on only the

As covered in lecture, the e-text also stressed the importance of law enforcement operating with up-to-date with the technology. The e-text also discussed law enforcement at a state level. The North Dakota Public Alerts is a state agency as it serves to protect and aid the entire state of North Dakota, not just a specific jurisdiction of the state.

The establishment of the Amber Alert system proves that improvement for child abduction prevention is improving. Amber Alert is a system that notifies child abduction. When a person gets kidnapped users with a phone, tv or radio gets notified. Throughout the years child abduction laws have improved and the Amber Alert system is one of the many improvements. Lorenzi Neal’s "Keeping Baby Safe", discusses the systems used in United States hospitals to help prevent child abduction.

The AMBER alert system is very well run and has saved a lot of children from possibly life altering situations. The only change that I would make is one of informational prevention. What I mean by that is we must inform the public, not only when an AMBER alert is emitted but before so we can prevent a possible situation. I believe this starts within the home, as parents they must monitor their children’s time online to ensure they are not talking to people who they are not supposed to be talking to. While the Internet is a great tool it is also a great medium for possible predators to begin to stalk your children. Parents must be aware of who their children are speaking to online to prevent the possibility of an abduction in the future. Other precautions are very simple as well, such as being aware of where they are and setting boundaries and rules of where they could be at certain times. Another precaution could be as simple as ensuring the child has an up to date Identification card. In the home, parents should also warn the children of possible dangers from strangers and possible situations that if they are found in a difficult situation how they should react. Parents must also be informed of the truth about abductions. According to kidshealth.org most children who are reported missing have run away or are just lost. Those who are truly abducted, most are taken by a family member or someone well trusted; the other 25% are taken by strangers. Lastly, the website informs us that most kids are in their teens when they are abducted. This information is crucial to helping prevent the possible abduction and should be readily available to all families in order to prevent situations like that of Amber

“Hey, can you stop calling me kid, I’m only a year younger than you two,” I complained. We were on the road a while before we were even miles from the mountain, “I don’t like the way this car sounds.”

In reviewing your suggested app, “Security Alert,” I felt your proposal was worth considering. With forty-percent of surveyed Americans feeling unsafe walking at night, this app could aid in reducing the anxieties associated with this fear as pointed out in your proposition (Sadd, 2011, para. 6). Furthermore, with three-fourths of surveyed parents stating that child abduction was a fear that they held and one-third of these parents admitting it was a worry that affected them frequently, this app could even further reduce anxieties (Bilich, n.d.). Consequently, decreasing the apprehension that one might feel. Therefore, this shrinking of one’s level of stress, could aid in the development of better physical and emotional health, subsequently lessening the risk of developing other stress-related disorders (Nevid, 2015, p. 357). Moreover, “Security Alert” could prove to be a valuable parenting support, should an actual abduction occur, as the “Red” option would allow for faster response time as also pointed out in the dissertation. Rapid response time is critical in the recovery of an abducted child, as seventy-four percent of slayings occur within the first three hours after an abduction (Bilich, n.d.).