The Associated Press
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) - A statewide public-alert system used to find two abducted California teenagers will be duplicated in North Carolina, Attorney General Roy Cooper said.
The N.C. Child Alert Network will use the Emergency Broadcast System and perhaps electronic highway signs to quickly alert the public when a child is abducted by a stranger.
The message would include descriptions of the child, the abductor, any vehicle they may be traveling in, and a number to call with information, much the way the California Child Safety Amber Network worked.
“I think it’s critical that North Carolina move forward to implement (it) as quickly as possible,” Cooper said. “Clearly, this system, if used properly, can save lives.”
California’s system, used for the first time Thursday, helped authorities rescue two girls abducted from a teenage hangout in Lancaster, Calif. The suspected kidnapper was fatally shot by police about 12 hours later.
A description of the suspect’s vehicle was broadcast on radio stations and 500 electronic freeway signs. A man who’d heard the radio broadcast spotted the suspect’s vehicle and alerted police.
Cooper said his office is applying for a grant from the Governor’s Crime Commission to pay for the program. He said it’s too early to say how soon it could be up and running.
Officials are still working out details on how the program would work and the circumstances for when it would be used. Cooper said he wouldn’t expect to use it on a daily or even weekly basis.
So far, according to a spokesman with Cooper’s office, the criteria include law enforcement confirmation of the abduction, fear for the child’s safety, and enough descriptive information about the child, abductor or a vehicle that a broadcast might help locate them.
The Amber Alert Program was named for Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996. The brown-haired third-grader was dragged, screaming, off her bicycle as she rode near her grandparents’ home in Arlington, Texas, and her nude body was found four days later in a creek.
As a result of her death, Dallas broadcasters developed a local alert program, the first of its kind, modeled on the alerts that are issued with storms are threatened.
There are now 41 programs across the country, credited with recovering at least 17 children since 1997.