Wireless AMBER Alerts Available in Arizona

An AMBER Alert was recently issued in Arizona urging citizens to be on the lookout for an abducted girl and boy and their abductors. During these times, when a child's safety is in question, many people wonder if there is anything they can do individually to help.

Your audience might be interested in knowing that in addition to paying close attention to AMBER Alerts when they are distributed via broadcast outlets or on highway signs, they can also sign up to receive AMBER Alerts as free text messages on their wireless devices. Their participation will add critical eyes and ears to the search for abducted children.

Any wireless subscriber may opt in to receive free Alerts by completing a simple registration process at www.wirelessamberalerts.org or their wireless carrier's Web site. Most wireless customers can text the word AMBER followed by a space and their 5-digit ZIP Code to 26237.

AMBER stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response" and was created in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to find abducted children. The AMBER Alert Program was soon adopted across the nation and is a legacy to Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then murdered. All 50 states have since established AMBER Alert programs.

President Bush authorized the national AMBER Alert program as part of the PROTECT Act signed in 2003. The law formally established the federal government's role in the AMBER Alert program, appointing the Department of Justice (DOJ) as the agency responsible for coordinating AMBER Alerts on the national level. The wireless industry has officially partnered with the U.S. Department of Justice and the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to make free Wireless AMBER Alerts available to cell phone subscribers.

More than 390 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the AMBER Alert network.