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American Morning
Amber Alert Saves Childrens' Lives
Aired August 23, 2001 - 11:26 ET
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Parents, this next story could be crucial to the safety of your children. A Texas program to help locate missing children quickly is about to go nationwide. It's called Amber, it's named after this girl, 0-year-old Amber Haggerman. She was kidnapped and killed in Dallas in 1996.
Police alert radio and television stations when a child goes missing. Here's an example of the emergency bulletin that viewers listen and get.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
ANNOUNCER: This is an activation of the Amber Network at the request of the Navarro County sheriff's office.
Navarro Country sheriff's deputies are looking for a mission 10- year-old child.
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KAGAN: Police say their chances are finding a missing child alive are best within the first three hours. The programs immediacy explains its success.
We've invited two gentlemen to talk about the Amber Alert. Tyler Cox is chairman of the Amber Task Force, he joins us from Dallas. And Ben Ermini is with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Ben is in Washington.
Gentlemen, good morning. Thanks for joining us.
BEN ERMINI, MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN CTR.: Good morning.
TYLER COX, AMBER TASK FORCE CHAIRMAN: Good morning.
KAGAN: Tyler, let's start with you. This obviously sounds like a weather alert, is what I think people would think they were hearing when they were listening to a radio or television.
COX: It uses the same technology, the Emergency Alert System, when the Amber Alert is issued. One clarification, it's not for missing children, it's only for those children that are known to be abducted or suspected of that.
KAGAN: And the police have to indicate that?
COX: That is correct. Police send an information sheet to the two news radio station serving Dallas-Ft. Worth. That information is then confirmed and then released over the Emergency Alert System, therefore, within a matter of minutes it's immediately in the hands of every radio and television station serving the north Texas area.
KAGAN: And, as we said, this is in place in places like north Texas.
Ben, have there been success stories already with this?
ERMINI: There's been 16 children recovered as a result of the Amber plan.
KAGAN: Can you give us a specific example of one time when it worked?
ERMINI: I think one time that it worked, the Amber plan was alerted and a child's description and the vehicle was sent out through the community. An individual driving along in his car was listening to the report, happened to see the car right in front of him that was described in the alert, and notified the police through his cell phone, and the child was recovered as a result of that alert.
KAGAN: I think we might have that sound. Do we have that sound to play?
ERMINI: I believe that's what we have.
KAGAN: We do. Let's go ahead and listen to it.
(BEGIN AUDIO CLIP)
DISPATCHER: 911. What is your emergency?
UNIDENTIFIED MALE: That Amber Alert, the lady is right in front of
(END AUDIO CLIP)
KAGAN: So that was the man who had heard the Amber Alert, and then indicated to safety officials, and that helped save that child.
COX: Certainly.
ERMINI: That's certain. He had his cell phone with him, then he alerted the law enforcement agency and he was able to follow that car and direct the police right to that vehicle.
KAGAN: Ben, explain to me the time factor. We talked about a little bit about this at the top of the segment. But, how important is immediacy and quickness in finding a child once he or she has been abducted?
ERMINI: There was a national incident study conducted, and a study that was conducted by the Washington state attorney general's office. They looked at a number of abductings, where a child was abducted and then later found deceased. They found that in 74 percent of those cases, the child was murdered within the first three hours of that abduction.
So that alone is reason to implement the Amber plan in the community.
KAGAN: Tyler, back to you. As we said before, the sound is kind of like a weather alert or a storm alert right when you hear it, so it does captures your attention.
Is there any fear, concern that this could dilute the importance of that sound, and people that hear that, kind of like, now you hear the broadcasting, testing, you automatically just turn the channel?
COX: That's one of the reasons why the criteria were tightened down about two years, to make sure that it was not used for children missing, not children just caught in a domestic dispute, but definitely for children who were known to be abducted, or whose lives were felt to be in danger.
That sound is available to every radio and television station in the marketplace, and the community now understands and it's conditioned to know when they hear that particular sound, no matter what radio station they're listening to, they know to be on the lookout for a child who was abducted.
KAGAN: And so it's worked well in north Texas, but now this is going national.
COX: We're very happy to be working with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. It's in about 27 localities around the country now, and we're looking forward to having it expand across the country.
KAGAN: Ben, what kind of difference do you think that's going to make, if it's in many more markets?
ERMINI: I think it's going to save a tremendous amount of lives. It's a program that the National Center is working with the Amber Plan Task Force in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area. We hope to promote this program nationally. Six states have already established it as a statewide program.
KAGAN: We wish you well with this, and also keeping children across the country safe.
Ben Ermini and Tyler Cox, thank you.
COX: Thank you.
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