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04-24-2008

             Wireless AMBER Alert Aid in Search for Children

 The Wireless AMBER Alert initiative gives the nearly 70 percent of the American population that uses cell phones and other wireless devices the opportunity to help find missing children.

 Since its creation after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, the Amber Alert program has helped reunite more than 375 children with their families. The program is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters and transportation agencies to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases. Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System to air a description of the abducted child and suspected abductor.

 The Wireless AMBER Alert initiative distributes AMBER Alerts to wireless subscribers who opt in to receive the messages. Subscribers capable of receiving text messages, and whose wireless carrier participates in the Wireless AMBER Alert initiative may get alerts by registering at www.wirelessamberalerts.org or their wireless carrier’s Web site.

Most eligible wireless subscribers can also text message the keyword “AMBER” follow by a space and their five-digit ZIP code to short code AMBER (26237) Wireless users can designate up to five ZIP codes from which they’d like to be alerted in the event of an AMBER Alert activation.

New Wireless AMBER Alerts public service advertisements (PSA) encourage wireless subscribers nationwide to sign up for the wifeless text message alerts and to help law enforcement safely recover abducted children.

The new PSA campaign features TV, radio, and print PSA’s created pro bono by ad agency Merkley + Partners. Wireless carriers serving New York (AT & T, Sprint Nextel, T-Mobile and Verizon Wireless) have also helped raise awareness of the campaign in their retail locations.

The wireless Foundation, the U.S. Department of Justice and the Advertising Council unveiled the PSA’s during Advertising Week 2007 (September 24-28) in New York City.

This article was published in "The Front LINE" the Winter 2007 edition; a publication from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.    

Brought to you by Sheriff David Walker,