Wireless Amber Alerts increase child abduction deterrence

New Orleans CityBusiness, Jun 6, 2005 by Richard Slawsky

According to a 1997 study by the state of Washington's Office of the Attorney General, 74 percent of abducted children who are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.

When a child turns up missing, there is rarely a shortage of volunteers willing to help search. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has teamed with cell phone service providers to increase the search party by 182 million people.

Americans want to help fight crimes against children and now that power rests in the palm of their hands, said Steve Largent, president and CEO of the Washington, D.C.-based trade group the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association.

Nine wireless companies, including Cingular Wireless, Verizon Wireless, Nextel Communications, Alltel, Dobson Communications, RCC/ Unicel, T-Mobil, U.S. Cellular and Sprint, launched the Wireless AMBER Alerts Initiative May 17. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

The program is named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped in January 1996 while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and subsequently murdered. All 50 states now have an AMBER Alert program.

The program was created in 1997 when broadcasters in the Dallas- Fort Worth area teamed with police to develop an early warning system to find abducted children.

Under the new initiative, any wireless subscriber with text messaging at one of those companies can opt to have AMBER Alerts delivered to their wireless phone.

AMBER Alerts are designed to reach a maximum number of people in the shortest amount of time, typically through radio and television broadcasts. Road construction message signs have also been used to transmit AMBER Alerts.

Between 200 and 250 alerts are issued each year, according to the NCMEC. To date, more than 200 children have been recovered as a direct result of AMBER Alerts, NCMEC officials said.

Although most child kidnappings involve custodial disputes, according to the U.S. Department of Justice, more than 100 abductions each year involve a child abducted by a stranger or acquaintance. In 40 percent of those cases, the child is killed. Nearly half such abductions involve sexual assaults.

President Bush authorized the national AMBER Alert program as part of the Prosecutorial Remedies and Other Tools to end the Exploitation of Children Today Act. The PROTECT Act punishes sex tourism trade offenders.

Wireless customers who want to participate in the AMBER Alert program can sign up at www.wirelessamberalerts.org or through their carrier's Web site. Subscribers can designate up to five ZIP codes where they can receive AMBER Alerts. There is no charge to participate.

Using cellular phones to pass along AMBER Alerts has been in the works for about two years. Atlanta-based Cingular Wireless and Overland, Kan.-based Sprint had programs for their employees to receive AMBER Alerts.

Our involvement with this started in 2003, when we gave our network technicians the ability to sign up to receive AMBER Alerts, said Calie Shackelford, Cingular spokeswoman. We had several hundred employees participating in that program because our network technicians are out on the road a lot.

Fortunately, Cingular officials said, the service hasn't yet been needed.

In July 2004, Reston, Va.-based Nextel Communications in partnership with the Pennsylvania State Police, began offering AMBER Alerts to customers in Pennsylvania.

The equipment distributing AMBER Alerts to wireless phones is maintained by Tampa, Fla.-based Syniverse Technologies. Syniverse and six other technology companies spent $9 million developing the platform to pass AMBER alerts from law enforcement to wireless phones.

No alerts have been issued since the program went online, said CTIA officials. However, since the program became available, nearly 2,000 people per hour have been signing up to participate, they said

In the first week, we had more than 50,000 people sign up, said CTIA spokeswoman Roxanne Robbins. We are pursuing ways to keep getting the word out to keep the pace up.