AMBER Alert Program

The AMBER Alert program is a child abduction recovery plan originally started in the Dallas/Fort Worth area in 1996 after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered. In response to community concern, radio stations in the area joined with law enforcement agencies to establish a program capable of quickly distributing information about child abductions to the general public. In memory of Amber Hagerman, the program was called the AMBER Plan—America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

The Montana Department of Justice implemented a similar program in Montana in 2003.

National AMBER Alert Website

In January 2005, Montana became the third state to join the national AMBER Alert Web Portal. That web portal:

• provides detailed information about a suspected abduction
• notifies law enforcement, television and radio stations, and others of the abduction
• allows computer users to sign up to receive email notification of suspected abductions within their state

AMBER Alert Notification

Should a child abduction in Montana meet the alert criteria, law enforcement will issue an active alert through a national AMBER Alert website and the Montana AMBER Alert logo at the top of this box will change to a special animated graphic. Clicking on the graphic will take users to the national website for details of the suspected abduction.

Montana AMBER Alert Criteria

To initiate an AMBER Alert, call 9-1-1 and provide your local law enforcement agency with all the information you can about a suspected child abduction. To activate the program, all of the following criteria must be met:

• The child must be 17 years old or younger, or have a proven mental or physical disability.
• The child must be in imminent danger of serious injury or death.
• There must be enough descriptive information available to believe that broadcasting it will assist law enforcement in recovering the child.
• The alert must be recommended by the local law enforcement agency of jurisdiction.

The AMBER Alert system is not used to track runaways, missing children or children involved in custody disputes. The program is restricted to child abduction cases that could be life threatening.

Support for AMBER Alert

Montana's radio and television stations and law enforcement agencies voluntarily participate in the Montana AMBER Alert program. Special thanks for establishing the program in Montana go to:

• the Montana Broadcasters Association
• the Montana Association of Chiefs of Police
• the Montana Sheriffs and Peace Officers Association