Daily Journal
JACKSON – AMBER Alerts will use Facebook subscribers to help find missing children starting today, thanks to a partnership between the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children and the social network.
Getting detailed information about the incident out to the public as quickly as possible is key to finding missing children. The chances of finding an abducted child increase dramatically when more people in the search area are on the lookout – especially in the first few hours.
“Facebook along with other social media have become part of our everyday life,” said Lt. Col. Larry Waggoner, director of the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation. “Incorporating social media into our Amber plan gives us additional tools we can use to return abducted children safely.”
People have already been using Facebook to help find missing children. Last year, an 11-year-old girl was safely recovered after a South Carolina motel employee recognized a photo of the girl in an AMBER alert she saw on Facebook. The woman called the police, and the child was found unharmed.
“For most people, these alerts will be rare because they will only go to people who are in a position to help – those specifically within the designated search area,” said Emily Vacher, who leads this initiative for the Facebook Trust and Safety team. “If you get an alert on Facebook it means there is an active search for an abducted child going on in your area. The alert will provide the critical information you need to potentially help reunite a child with his or her family.”
AMBER Alerts are a child abduction alert system that started in the United States in 1996. Mississippi launched its Amber Alert program in December of 2002. AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas. The decision to declare an AMBER Alert is made by each police organization (in many cases, the state police or highway patrol) investigating the abduction. Public information in an AMBER Alert usually includes the name and description of the abductee, a description of the suspected abductor, and a description and license plate number of the abductor’s vehicle. The AMBER Alert system issues media alerts when a law enforcement agency determines that a child was abducted and is in imminent danger.
For more information on Mississippi’s Amber Alert program visit the Department of Public Safety’s website at www.dps.state.ms.us and click on “helpful links and services” to find the AMBER Alert tab.