AMBER Alert Awareness Day 2008

With the beginning of the new year, we pause to honor the life and legacy of Amber Hagerman and to take stock of the progress we have made through the AMBER Alert program. Since it was created in 1996, the AMBER Alert program is credited with the successful recovery of 377 children.

Last year was marked by unprecedented successes in the AMBER Alert program, the result of improved systems, strengthened partnerships, and an expanded Amber Alert network. We also continued our efforts to expand the AMBER Alert Network into tribal communities under the AMBER Alert in Indian Country initiative. We selected ten tribal communities to serve as demonstration sites in implementing AMBER Alert plans. These sites will serve as resources for other Native American communities seeking to establish or expand systems for recovering missing and abducted children.

The AMBER Alert Program also implemented innovations in the dissemination of alerts, most notably through secondary distribution agreements with MySpace and the Transportation Security Administration. Alerts now are sent to all MySpace users in the zip codes covered by an alert and to the nation's 43,000 airport security screeners.

The 5th National AMBER Alert Conference was held in November 2007. Teams from all 50 states, tribal communities, the territories, the District of Columbia, Canada, and Mexico gathered in Denver to receive training and to discuss ways to enhance their AMBER Alert programs.

The success of AMBER Alert is the direct result of the cooperation of alert citizens, the media, local law enforcement, transportation officials, and our many partners in the public and private sector.

On January 13, AMBER Alert Awareness Day, we will commemorate that success and honor the memory of Amber Hagerman. We encourage every state to sponsor events that focus on missing and abducted children, following the examples of states holding Child Safety Fairs. Poster contests, public outreach, AMBER Alert tests, and other activities are excellent ways to raise awareness of this important program. We hope that you will join us in making this an opportunity for improving our system for responding to abducted children.