Child abduction alert system
A child abduction alert system (also Child Alert, AMBER Alert or Child Rescue Alert) is a tool used to alert the public in cases of worrying or life-threatening disappearances of children.
At present, there are AMBER Alert systems working in 18 EU countries: Belgium, Bulgaria, Cyprus, the Czech Republic, France, Germany, Greece, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and the United Kingdom. AMBER Alerts systems in Poland (2013), Slovakia (2015), Luxembourg (2016) and Malta (2017). These systems aim at quickly disseminating relevant information about a very worrying child disappearance to the general public at large, through a variety of channels, thus increasing the chances of finding the child.
AMBER Alert Europe is an international not for profit organisation with 25 members (law enforcement, ministries & NGOs) in 17 countries. Its Police Network consists of over 40 experts representing law enforcement from 14 EU countries. The goals of AMBER Alert Europe are backed by 465 Members of the European Parliament: most successful Written Declaration since 2011. Therefore, AMBER Alert Europe suggests the following 5 key points to the European Commission and the European Parliament:
In 2014, AMBER Alert Europe launched the Police Expert Network on Missing Children. Goal of the network is to allow missing children police experts to quickly and informally contact their colleagues in other European member states and exchange best practices.
When it is believed that the life or health of a missing child is in imminent danger, the police can issue an AMBER Alert. This allows them to instantly alert the public and make sure everyone is on the lookout for the child. Extensive US research, backed by UK findings, show that when a child is abducted and killed, in 76% of the cases the child was killed within three hours after the abduction. The AMBER Alert system was developed for these special ‘life or death’ cases. Law enforcement agencies are responsible for issuing an AMBER Alert and use strict criteria. Below you can find the current criteria as recommended by the European Commission:
The technology currently being used by AMBER Alert Europe builds on the technology already used in the Netherlands since 2008 for the Dutch AMBER Alert plan. The first cross-border child alert organised by AMBER Alert Europe was issued in the early morning of the 8th of May 2013 for two Dutch brothers. The boys' photo was displayed on large screens in the Belgian province of Limburg and in North Rhine-Westphalia (Germany) and has received extensive media attention in the Netherlands, Belgium and Germany. The bodies of the children have been found at 19 May 2013 near Cothen (the Netherlands).
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