What is the AMBER Plan?

The AMBER Plan is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. 

Broadcasters use the Emergency Alert System (EAS), formerly called the Emergency Broadcast System, to air a description of the missing child and suspected abductor. 

This is the same concept used during severe weather emergencies. The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe return of the child.

CodeAmber.org was established in August of 2002 to extend the reach of every Amber Alert to the World Wide Web. Please, add the Code Amber Ticker to your site today. You could help save a child's life.

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What is an AMBER Alert?

Each program establishes its own AMBER Plan criteria; however, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children suggests three criteria that should be met before an Alert is activated.

• law enforcement confirms a child has been abducted
• law enforcement believes the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death
• there is enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect’s vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will help

If these criteria are met, alert information must be put together for public distribution. This information can include descriptions and pictures of the missing child, the suspected abductor, a suspected vehicle, and any other information available and valuable to identifying the child and suspect.

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How does it work?

Upon receipt of an Amber Alert from Law Enforcement Authorities anywhere in the world, day or night, the CodeAmber ticker will be updated immediately on our server.

During an Amber Alert all of the relevant details provided by the reporting Authority will be scrolled in the Code Amber ticker window.

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The Origin of the AMBER Plan

The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special “alerts” over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future.

In response to the community’s concern for the safety of local children, the Dallas/Fort Worth Association of Radio Managers teamed up with local law-enforcement agencies in northern Texas and developed this innovative early warning system to help find abducted children. Statistics show that, when abducted, a child’s greatest enemy is time.

In April, 2003, President Bush signed the Amber Alert legislation making it a national program. While the Amber Alert system is now mandated across the country, some states are still trying to implement the procedures necessary in bringing the alerts to the public. Hampered by outdated Emergency Broadcast guidelines and different activation criteria in each state, the system needs a fair amount of fine-tuning to be optimally effective. Code Amber is on the cutting edge with the technology helping to make that a reality.

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