AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response) Alert is an alert system to let the local area know when a child under the age of 17 has been abducted. An alert instantly gets sent out over regular television stations, radio stations, law enforcement agencies, wireless phones, the back of lottery tickets, the internet, highway signs, and the AMBER Alert iPod application. It gives the local area information on the abducted child, who they are suspected to be with, and what area they might be in. AMBER Alert is effective in all 50 states of the United States, including Puerto Rico, the U.S. Virgin Island, and the northern and southern borders of the United States.
The idea of AMBER Alert came from the story of nine-year old Amber Hagerman, a little girl who was abducted on January 13, 1996 in Arlington, Texas. Amber was riding her bike around her grandparents’ neighborhood that day. When she didn’t return home to her grandparents’ house they went looking for her. As they were driving around the neighborhood they saw a police car at a neighbor’s house. One of the neighbors saw Amber being abducted and called the police. Amber’s family was notified. Four days after Amber’s abduction and searching for her, her dead body was found in a creek bed. Her murderer was never found and her case was left unsolved.
Because of Amber’s abduction, Carles Williams, a pastor from Fort Worth, Texas wanted to prevent incidents like Amber’s from happening in the future. On January 15, 1996 he called into a Dallas radio station and suggested the idea for AMBER Alert. It began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop a quick alert system to find missing children. Willams had the idea of Amber Alert for over nine years, though when he heard about Amber missing he decided to come forward about it. AMBER Alert was finally signed into law in April of 2003 by former President George W. Bush.
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