The North Carolina Center for Missing Persons, which issues AMBER Alerts in this state, welcomes a new partnership with Facebook to help find missing children.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children joined with Facebook to send AMBER Alerts to the social network’s community to help find missing children. Facebook’s distribution system will send AMBER Alerts to user’s News Feeds.
“Getting detailed information to the public quickly improves dramatically the ability to find an abducted child,” said Lt. Jeff Gordon, director of the N.C. Center for Missing Persons. “When the community is able to report sightings of the child, the suspect or the vehicle, especially in the first few hours, law enforcement are better able to find and recover the child safely.
Facebook authorities say that for most people, the alerts will be rare because they will only go to people within the designated search area. If a Facebook user does get an alert, it means there is an active search for an abducted child going on in that area. The alert will provide the critical information needed to potentially help reunite a child with his or her family.
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. Similar word-of-mouth efforts inspired Facebook to develop a more systematic way to help find missing children.
The AMBER Alert system issues media alerts when a law enforcement agency determines that a child was abducted and is in imminent danger.
Here’s how Facebook will complement existing AMBER Alert distribution systems:
1) Reach – Facebook’s distribution system will get the AMBER Alert to everyone who is logged into Facebook (on both mobile and desktop) during the alert if they are within the designated search area as specified by law enforcement.
2) Comprehensive Information – the alert will include important details about the child such as a photo, description, location of the abduction, and any other available information that can be provided to the public to aid in the search for the missing child.
3) Community Involvement – the Facebook system enables people to share the alert with friends and link to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children for the most up-to-date information about the case.
AMBER Alerts are a child abduction alert system that started in the United States in 1996. 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 in North Carolina is made by the N.C. Center for Missing Persons. 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.