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Sen. Feinstein Discusses Making Amber Alert Nationwide

Aired September 03, 2002 - 14:15   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: A local crime fighting tool has caught Washington's attention and lawmakers will begin debating tomorrow whether the Amber Alert will go nationwide. The system connects several agencies, in the search for abducted children. It's worked in several recent cases, including cases in California and Texas.
Senator Dianne Feinstein is a co-sponsor of a bill that would take the Amber Alert nationwide. She joins us now live from Washington to talk about it.

Senator, good to see you.

SENATOR DIANNE FEINSTEIN (D), CALIFORNIA: Good to see you. Thank you.

PHILLIPS: So let's talk about a national impact. It has been very successful in California and in Texas. How do you know it will be successful nationally?

FEINSTEIN: Well, first of all, if a child is abducted, I believe you have 24 to 48 hours to find that child. And then the chances of that child being located alive, I think, diminish very widely. In the Amber Alert practiced in about 15 states -- it has been in place in California for about a month. In that month, there have been 13 Amber Alerts. Twelve of them have resulted in the return of the child. Eight of these were abductions by a stranger. And four were abductions by a family member. The 13th was a misstep.

That is pretty good: 12 out of 13. These are children that might well have been gone forever, or who knows, perhaps even killed, and yet they were returned to their parents. I think that's real proof.

Now, we are almost 1/2 of the nation. I think there are 26 other children that have been returned in the 15 other states. That is the total. So California is almost one half of the total.

I think this is going to be on fast track. I happen to chair the Terrorism and Technology Subcommittee of Judiciary. We are holding a hearing tomorrow morning. I'm very hopeful that we will have a speedy markup and get this bill to the floor within a week or so.

PHILLIPS: Senator, how would your bill prevent this from being overused? We don't want people numb to it if indeed it goes national. How will you know when to use it and when not to use it?

FEINSTEIN: You have made a very good point. And one of the things that the bill would require is the establishment of standards, standards for when the Amber Alert can be used and should be used. And those standards might be that, you know, an abductor was seen, that there is evidence of an abduction -- whatever it is, the standards will be formulated by the department, the Justice Department, and those will be standards used by all the states. I think that makes it a lot simpler. And I think it avoids missteps.

As I say, 12 out of 13 returns is not a bad batting average for California. It is pretty impressive in my book.

PHILLIPS: Senator, you know I have to ask this question: cash? Where is the money going to come from? You know the Justice Department has its hands full right now fighting terrorism.

FEINSTEIN: Well, that's right. But this will not be a big program. We can afford to do this. We can afford to help states with grants to get it set up, to get it set up properly, to see that the interrelationships are accomplished. It is not difficult to do. It can be done, and it will be done, and it is going to work. And I think youngsters are going to be a lot better off.

I think it is pretty exciting when that notice goes out on the highways and somebody sees a car and recognizes the license number and picks up the phone. And there is instance after instance of this happening.

And I the think it says something too to the perpetrator, and that is the likelihood of your being caught has gone up substantially.

PHILLIPS: And senator, only 16 states right now use the Amber Alert, in the state system. Are you going to do anything to try and push for all states to install this on a regional level?

FEINSTEIN: Well, one of the points of this bill that Senator Hutchison -- and I want to commend her: I think Texas should be extraordinarily proud of her; she is the main author -- I am the co- author of this. One of the things I think that is so important about this bill is that it provides grants to states that would like to set up this system. And I think that will be a big help.

PHILLIPS: Senator Dianne Feinstein, we will be following your progress. Thank you.

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