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The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to nine 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.
How It Works In Tulsa.
Once the Tulsa Police Department has been notified about an abducted child, they must first determine if the case meets the AMBER Plan’s criteria for triggering an alert.
The situation must meet the following criteria:
1. law enforcement confirms a child age 15 or younger has been abducted
2. law enforcement believes the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death.
3. 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.
The information is then faxed to radio stations designated as primary stations under the Emergency Alert System (EAS) and is placed on the Tulsa Police Department web site.
The primary stations send the same information to area radio and television stations and cable systems via the EAS, and it is immediately broadcast by participating stations to millions of listeners.
Radio stations interrupt programming to announce the Alert, and television stations and cable systems run a “crawl” on the screen along with a picture of the child.
The Tulsa Police Department web site uses a popup box to display information in a printable format. The popup displays once per browser session for the duration of the alert.
Oklahoma also incorporates electronic highway billboards in the Amber Plan. The billboards, typically used to disseminate traffic information to drivers, now alert the public of abducted children, displaying pertinent information about the child, abductor or suspected vehicle that drivers might look for on highways.