New Child Abduction Alert System in Works for NH, Congress Proposes National AMBER Alert
By Kim Forrest
WASHINGTON–A week after 15-year-old Elizabeth Smart was found safe and returned to her family in Utah, lawmakers in Washington are working on passing a nationwide AMBER alert. While New Hampshire has no AMBER plan of its own, state officials are preparing a system to facilitate broadcasting vital information when a New Hampshire child goes missing.
On Capitol Hill, Rep. Charles Bass (R-2) announced his support of a bill that would create a national standardized AMBER alert (AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response). The House is expected to consider the bill this week, and Bass called for its quick passage.
A nationwide AMBER alert system “will make it far more difficult for predators to get away with children,” Bass said. “Because of the nature of the alert system, the word will go out very fast. All over the country, people will be on the lookout much more quickly.”
Named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was abducted from her Texas neighborhood and later found murdered, the AMBER alert would provide information to broadcast media about a child’s abduction and they would be expected to interrupt their programming to report the information. Some states also use electronic highway billboards to get the word out. The AMBER alert system has been credited with the recovery of 51 children nationwide.
So far, 39 states have a statewide AMBER plan in effect, and while New Hampshire is not one of them, Granite State officials are attempting to come up with their own plan.
Bass, the father of two young children, said statistics show that the chances of finding abducted children dramatically decrease with time, so an AMBER alert that brings people information quickly is extremely helpful.
If the national AMBER alert bill passes, it would certainly benefit the Granite State, Bass said. He explained that because of New Hampshire’s small size, it would be easy for abductors to leave the state quickly.
With a nationwide AMBER alert, Bass said, “we would be assured of a seamless communication between small New England states.”
According to Jim Van Dongen, public information officer for the New Hampshire Department of Safety’s Emergency Management Office, the state currently has an “ad hoc” system in place, meaning that if a child goes missing, the police would generally call a news conference to publicize information. But there is no standardized method of getting information out to the public.
Sgt. Kelly McClare, assistant unit commander for the New Hampshire state police major crimes unit, said he hopes that a new program, the New Hampshire Child Abduction Alert System, which he described as “basically an AMBER alert system,” will be put into place within the next month and a half. He said that work on this plan has been going on for years but that with the increased and more publicized abductions around the country, “we really started to put our heart and soul into this.” He added that the New Hampshire system would work with systems in other states.
A meeting of state officials and broadcasters is scheduled for Friday to solidify plans for the new procedure.
Van Dongen said that the plan is being developed with broadcasters and law enforcement officials. It would use the Emergency Alert System (EAS) to broadcast announcements and details of a missing child in the same way that notices are given of severe weather warnings.
He said that certain criteria would have to be met if such an alert is to go out. “First, this has to be for a child 17 and younger in a life-threatening situation,” he said. “There also has to be some information that can be passed on to the public, such as a description or a license number.”
He also said that providing information to radio stations is the “most important part” of the plan, in that “reaching people in their cars in really the top priority.” Drivers could spot an abductor on the move, and use a cell phone to call police, he said.
McClare said that information would also be sent to television stations, which could scroll the information on the bottom of screens, as they do with severe weather messages.
This plan would have “really no cost to the state of New Hampshire,” Van Dongen added, saying that the only real costs would be for media software upgrades, and the New Hampshire Association of Broadcasters has picked up the tab for such changes.
Ed Brouder, Chairman of the State Emergency Communications Committee, explained that the Federal Communications Commission has created a three-letter Child Abduction Emergency code, which would be sent, with other information, to radio broadcasters around the state in the event of a kidnapping.
Brouder said that the effort to upgrade the software for the 90 or so New Hampshire radio stations’ started in September and is almost finished. He added that the upgrade will help standardize the broadcasting of information so that all areas of New Hampshire can have equal access to details.
“Whether it’s state police or a tiny little town, they all need to be on the same page,” Brouder said.
According to McClare, it will be very important to avoid false alarms and overuse of the system.
“We have to make sure that we don’t overuse or issue a false alert,” he said. “It’s like the weather alerts; since they go on quite a bit, people change the channel or turn it down. We don’t want that to happen with an AMBER alert.”
Published in The Keene Sentinel, in New Hampshire.
