Amber Alert Resources
The Amber Alert system saves the lives of children every single day, and without it, who knows how many children would have been brutally harmed, sexually assaulted, or murdered. By taking to the airwaves, making the entire community aware of the situation, and hopefully drum up support and assistance in the search, Alerts have been very effective at tracking down missing children and bringing their abductors to justice. The system is completely voluntary, but more and more law enforcement agencies around the country are recognizing the value of having such alerts to inform the public about missing children.
Why is it important to get the community involved? The first few hours after a child goes missing are the most crucial. The more time that passes between the child's last known whereabouts, the greater the possibility of something unfortunate happening to the child. Maybe someone has seen the child walking down the street, or maybe they saw the child walking with a strange person. Those in the community will have more immediate knowledge of the child, and galvanizing the local community to help in the search is the quickest way to figure out where the child might be. This is where an Alert is issued.
Who would know the child better than the families and children who play and interact with the child on a regular basis? If a child goes missing, word will get around pretty fast; however, teaming that with an Amber Alert will get the word out even faster. Amber Alerts also have the added benefit of being picked up by the local media, which exposes the story to even more people outside the immediate neighborhood. Quickly getting the messages out to the public will also put an abductor on notice that people will be looking for a suspect, which could bring the police that much closer to apprehending a kidnapper.
Amber Alerts were created out of an unfortunate circumstance involving a child being brutally murdered. The public responded by asking that notifications go out to inform the public beforehand if a child goes missing in the neighborhood, because maybe they can do something about it before such a crime occurs. The alert was the product of the community wanting to be involved in protecting the children. It's been proven time and time again that it works; in fact, over 500 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the program. If a child goes missing in your neighborhood, an Amber Alert is the fastest way to get that information out to the public. The more people who know, the greater the chance of a child being found.
