(DUSHORE, PA – February 19, 2004) –When you
were younger, do you remember playing a game of "Simon Says" or "Mother May
I" with your friends. Having to ask permission to do a certain task in order to
achieve a specific goal or win a game? Unfortunately, many law enforcement agencies are
now being placed in that situation of having to actually ask permission from other
departments before they are allowed to issue an Amber Alert about a missing child in their
area.
In a recent article of the Springfield, Missouri News-Leader by Matt Wagner and Ryan
Slight, the Amber Alert is being blamed for a lack of coordination, lack of a clear
decision-making process and supposedly leaving law enforcement officials, legislators and
parents confused about the entire process. Unfortunately, law enforcement has had access
to a program called Abduction Central Alert (ACA) for seven (7) years now that already
addresses many of the issues stated in this article but little has been done to further
promote and implement it. Some of the reasons for not doing so stem from the misconception
that other high profile organizations might loose their grip of Federal funds and
influential control. Other reasons are due to the intimidation of doing something
different.
The Amber Plan is simply a recommended procedure to follow when a child is reported
missing or abducted. It was proposed by the Dallas/Fort Worth Police Department in 1996
following the abduction, rape and murder of a young 9-year-old girl named Amber Hagerman.
The procedure states that if a child is sixteen (16) years old or younger, has been
reported missing or abducted and their life is considered endangered, law enforcement are
to notify the media and the Emergency Alert Service (EAS) of the situation so that the
general public can be informed. The original Amber Plan was simply to send faxes to
surrounding radio stations but due to the influence and leadership of the Child Alert
Foundation, this has since been expanded to all forms of media and to utilize whatever
electronic methods are available to that agency. It's the EAS that now sends the alert
information along to the Department of Transportation (DOT) roadside signs which people
now mistakenly believe is the actual Amber Alert. The DOT roadside signs are just another
electronic medium to inform the general public like a fax or radio broadcast.
In 1998, the Child Alert Foundation was established as a 501(c)3 tax exempt non-profit
charity to assist law enforcement in issuing Amber Alerts with their copyrighted Abduction
Central Alert (ACA) community alert notification system (ANS). The ACA system was the
first of it's kind to automate the Amber Plan and is still today the most advanced program
that activates pagers, faxes, emails, Internet alarms, voice mail, and more to an
immediate 100-mile radius in a matter of seconds/minutes of being activated. It is the ACA
system that has impacted the industry and demonstrated to others how technology can be
harnessed to create a first responder system to dynamically inform a large population
base.
Who better than your local law enforcement knows and understands your community? Who
better than your local law enforcement should have the tools to protect you and your
community? Why then wouldn't you want your local law enforcement to have access to a
system that gives them the ability to make their own decisions about notifying the
surrounding area rather than giving that responsibility to some other organization and
waste valuable decision making time?
The Abduction Central Alert (ACA) program was designed as a tool to dynamically alert a
telescopic 100-mile radius called the "Zone of Influence" in an effort to help
police and sheriff's create a virtual net to surround a suspect. When a mile equals a
minute, every second counts and the ACA system is the most comprehensive ANS ever designed
to accomplish that task. Almost all of other programs being used to activate Amber Alerts
across the nation now can only perform a fraction of the tasks that the ACA system
provides. With ACA, the Amber Alert criterion is already built into the system to remove
much of the confusion of when and how it should be used. It is broader in scope and can
address a variety of circumstances confronting law enforcement for the protection of the
community.
Unfortunately, most of the challenges stated in the News-Leader article could all be
resolved by embracing the ACA system instead of utilizing other less efficient programs
that only send out faxes or waste law enforcement's time and effort as they wait for
permission to take action. Isn't it time that pressure is placed on state and local
legislators to see this technology adopted as a standard instead of following the advice
of less technical individuals and special interest groups?
As a whole, the Amber Alert is exceptional idea. How we activate it and implement it is
more of the problem that needs to be addressed if it is going to have any lasting affect
and avoid all of this confusion.
To find out more about the Abduction Central Alert (ACA) system and how it can benefit
your community, visit the Child Alert Foundation website at: http://www.childalert.org.
