AMBER Alerts were developed in 1997 in Dallas-Fort Worth, Texas after the abduction and death of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman. After reading about the AMBER Alert program in the November, 2000, Reader’s Digest, Mike Rankin, co-founder of Mid Ohio AMBER Alert, contacted Clark Donley, News Director at Sunny 95 (WSNY-FM) and began working with law enforcement and media to bring a similar program to Mid Ohio. At that time less than a dozen communities in the U.S. had AMBER Alert plans, which allows TV and radio stations to break into regular programming in the event of a child stranger abduction to broadcast descriptions of the victim, suspect and vehicle in order to help recover the child quickly and safely. As of March 10, 2007, some 72 Ohio children have been recovered and 324 nationally as the result of the AMBER alert system.
In February of 2001 -- with the help of Franklin County
Sheriff Deputy Chief Steve Martin -- a working group of law enforcement
professionals was formed to help put in place the Mid Ohio Stranger Abduction
Alert system -- now called Mid Ohio AMBER Alert – and the program was
officially launched in October 2001. Procedures, protocols and forms to issue
AMBER Alerts were developed and are continually being adapted to meet the goal of
recovering missing children. That Mid Ohio AMBER Alert system was subsequently
adopted by the Buckeye State Sheriff’s Association and other regional AMBER
Alert programs around Ohio. In January, 2003, Governor Robert Taft signed the
law creating Ohio’s statewide AMBER Alert and the AMBER Alert Steering
Committee tapped several Mid Ohio Amber Alert board members to assist in forming
and implementing the state’s system.
MOAA does not issue amber alerts nor does it prevent
families of missing children from contacting the news media when such an event
occurs. It does help train police officers and the public in the AMBER alert
procedures, including “missing children
alerts to the news media ” which are issued when a child is
missing under circumstances suggesting foul play and may be in danger of
immediate serious physical harm or death but where there is no suspect. The
decision to issue an AMBER Alert rests with the local investigating police
agency.
AMBER programs are currently in place at the federal,
state and local levels and work continues on improving the system through the
effective use of technology. The goals of the MOAA are to help create greater
community awareness on how to prevent child abductions; train law enforcement on
what AMBER Alert is and how it works; make available child ID kits for
parents and guardians of children; help generate financial support for Mid Ohio
Amber Alert to continue to inform the public, train police officers and promote
better ways of investigating, handling and issuing AMBER, and
missing child alerts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION - CONTACT: Clark Donley 614.451.2191. or clark.donley@columbusradiogroup.com