NewHouse News Article

New Alert System Helped Pinpoint Location of Teens and Their Kidnapper

By ELIZABETH A. MARCHAK

c.2002 Newhouse News Service

Rapid communication made it easier for California law enforcement agencies to track down two teenage girls who were abducted at gunpoint early Thursday -- a technological advance instituted there just last week.

Police in Lancaster Calif., activated an alert that used the powerful sweep of television and radio to notify citizens that Tamara Brooks, 16, and Jacqueline Marris, 17, had been kidnapped by a gunman who tied up their boyfriends.

Twelve hours after they were taken from an isolated area popular with teenagers, the two were rescued. Police identified their abductor as Roy Ratliff, who was shot to death.

California Gov. Gray Davis ordered the system set up in his state after the abductions and deaths of Samantha Runnion, 5, whose body was found two weeks ago, and Dannielle van Dam, 7, whose body was found in February.

The system, known as the AMBER Alert, which stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, is being promoted by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, based in Alexandria, Va. It uses the government's Emergency Alert System to notify television and radio stations, which then can interrupt programming if they choose and broadcast alerts.

AMBER Alerts provide descriptions of the child and the suspected abductor. Before Thursday, AMBER Alerts had already saved 17 lives, said Joann Donnellan, center spokeswoman. The system was named in honor of Amber Hagerman, 9, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996 in Arlington, Texas.

The alerts are important because children are often dead within three hours after being abducted by a sexual predator, the national center says. On July 26, the body of a young girl was found hours after she was abducted in Missouri, police said.

Of the 325,000 abductions each year, sexual predators are involved in 500 to 600, and that number appears to be on the decline, Lanning said. Most of the rest involve family members and the child is returned.

Some states use similar systems named for other abducted children. In Utah the alerts were named for Rachael Runyan, 3, who was kidnapped and killed in 1982. Utah first used the alert June 5 after the disappearance of Elizabeth Smart, 14, from Salt Lake City.

Elizabeth's family notified police at 4 a.m., and police called a local radio station at 7:10 a.m. By 7:26 a.m. the information was being broadcast. Elizabeth, however, is still missing.

The federal government's emergency system eventually will be expanded, said the center's Donnellan, so it can contact cell phones, pagers and faxes to notify key officials, businesses or pertinent citizens when a child has disappeared.

But a Pennsylvania charity says it is has already developed such a system, which it says can notify even more people than the AMBER alerts within a 100-mile radius of an abduction.

The Child Alert Foundation, of Dushore, near Scranton, Pa., was created by Vincent Albers, and his son, also named Vincent.

The senior Albers, the foundation's president, retired from the Marine Corps and taught computer science. The younger Albers owns a company that designs software for courthouses. They say their computerized system is used by 120 police and sheriff departments in 14 states.

"Save the child, that's why we do it," said the senior Albers. In less than 60 seconds after a police department contacts the Albers' computer system, the network sends out messages and can transmit the child's picture.

The system can send faxes to businesses, messages to pagers and recorded messages to cell phones. Police departments create customized lists of other departments, news organizations, stores, toll booths, bus stations, airports and office buildings to call after an abduction occurs.

Tim Gladis, director of the Trumbull County (Ohio) 9-1-1 service, which uses the Albers' system, said the county has not had an abduction, but has successfully used the network to track down runaway children. His list includes truck stops. "If you have runaways a lot of times this is where they will go to get out of town," he said.

The only problem with using the network, Gladis said, is that parents don't always tell police when runaways come home. "You have to be diligent about listing them as being recovered," he said.

Marc Klass, president of the KlassKids Foundation, devoted to stopping crimes against children, said the Albers' network is a good idea because it utilizes the latest technology.

But Klass, whose daughter, Polly, 12, was killed after she was taken from her bedroom, said it would still be wise to keep AMBER and other networks operating instead of relying on one organization's computers.

"If they go down, it all goes down."

(Elizabeth A. Marchak is a reporter for The Plain Dealer of Cleveland. She can be contacted at marchak(at)marchak.net.)
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