Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen joined Florida’s local, state, federal and private partners today to commemorate National AMBER Alert Awareness Day.
AMBER stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response,” and on Jan. 13 each year, the U.S. Department of Justice remembers the abduction and brutal murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman that occurred 19 years ago in Texas.
More than 30,000 citizens have signed up at
www.missingchildrenalert.com to receive Florida AMBER Alerts via e-mail. FDLE encourages citizens to sign up to receive these free alerts to help law enforcement quickly recover children when they go missing. Each year, approximately 35,000 children are reported missing in Florida, with the majority of those being reported as runaways. Last year, FDLE issued six AMBER Alerts and 36 Missing Child Alerts. An AMBER Alert resulted in the direct recovery of one child and six children were located as a result of a Missing Child Alert.
“In April 2014, a five-month-old baby was abducted from a business in Sarasota County and an AMBER Alert was issued,” said FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen. “Thanks to the actions of an alert citizen, the child was safely recovered after the person saw the AMBER Alert and contacted law enforcement. This case is a prime example of the power of this program and the necessity of the public’s involvement in helping locate missing children.”
FDLE, in conjunction with the Division of Emergency Management and the Florida Association of Broadcasters, Inc., established the Florida AMBER Plan in 2000. Florida was the second state in the nation to take the partnership for AMBER Alerts statewide. Since that time, the AMBER Plan has expanded to include billboards, dynamic highway message signs and lottery machines. Since the program’s inception, FDLE has issued 190 AMBER Alerts and 56 children have been located as a direct result.
To view safety tips on how to keep your children safe, visit
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MCICSearch/SafetyTips.asp. To learn more about Florida’s AMBER Plan or to sign up to receive alerts, visit
www.missingchildrenalert.com.
For further information contact:
Gretl Plessinger, Samantha Andrews or Steve Arthur
FDLE Office of Public Information
(850) 410-7001
Florida Department of Law Enforcement Commissioner Rick Swearingen joined Florida’s local, state, federal and private partners today to commemorate National AMBER Alert Awareness Day.
AMBER stands for “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response,” and on Jan. 13 each year, the U.S. Department of Justice remembers the abduction and brutal murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman that occurred 19 years ago in Texas.
More than 30,000 citizens have signed up at
www.missingchildrenalert.com to receive Florida AMBER Alerts via e-mail. FDLE encourages citizens to sign up to receive these free alerts to help law enforcement quickly recover children when they go missing. Each year, approximately 35,000 children are reported missing in Florida, with the majority of those being reported as runaways. Last year, FDLE issued six AMBER Alerts and 36 Missing Child Alerts. An AMBER Alert resulted in the direct recovery of one child and six children were located as a result of a Missing Child Alert.
“In April 2014, a five-month-old baby was abducted from a business in Sarasota County and an AMBER Alert was issued,” said FDLE Commissioner Rick Swearingen. “Thanks to the actions of an alert citizen, the child was safely recovered after the person saw the AMBER Alert and contacted law enforcement. This case is a prime example of the power of this program and the necessity of the public’s involvement in helping locate missing children.”
FDLE, in conjunction with the Division of Emergency Management and the Florida Association of Broadcasters, Inc., established the Florida AMBER Plan in 2000. Florida was the second state in the nation to take the partnership for AMBER Alerts statewide. Since that time, the AMBER Plan has expanded to include billboards, dynamic highway message signs and lottery machines. Since the program’s inception, FDLE has issued 190 AMBER Alerts and 56 children have been located as a direct result.
To view safety tips on how to keep your children safe, visit
http://www.fdle.state.fl.us/MCICSearch/SafetyTips.asp. To learn more about Florida’s AMBER Plan or to sign up to receive alerts, visit
www.missingchildrenalert.com.
For further information contact:
Gretl Plessinger, Samantha Andrews or Steve Arthur
FDLE Office of Public Information
(850) 410-7001