by Paul Wilborn, Associated Press
LOS ANGELES (AP) - The rescue of a 10-year-old girl who disappeared from her home in Southern California this week was just the latest success for the Amber Alert, a rapid response system whose use has spread following several recent high-profile abductions.
Last week, workers at a Los Angeles medical clinic recognized a kidnapped 4-year-old girl after the system was used to spread photos of the child to television stations and other media. And in Texas, an Amber Alert was credited with helping authorities find an infant abducted in a Wal-Mart parking lot.
Despite similar successes in the six years since the system was first used, only 15 states currently operate Amber Alert systems. At least two of those have been in use for less than a month.
Politicians, police and broadcasters are scrambling to set up additional systems. Texas Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison and California Sen. Dianne Feinstein have jointly proposed legislation to create a national network.
“We’ve gained incredible momentum,” said Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va.
“The underlying premise is that time is the enemy in child abduction cases. In 74 percent of cases, the child is dead within three hours,” he added.
The system was first implemented in Arlington, Texas, after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. Nationwide, the alerts are credited with helping rescue at least 26 children since 1996, most in the past two years as more state and local systems have come online.
The alerts are transmitted to law enforcement agencies, television and radio stations through the Emergency Alert System created during the Cold War for use following a nuclear attack. Some states are also flashing alerts to drivers on roadside emergency signs.
On Tuesday, an alert about the disappearance of Nichole Taylor Timmons had spread across California and other western states through the media, generating hundreds of tips, before the girl’s alleged abductor was stopped by tribal police in Nevada and the girl was rescued.
But as the system spreads, so does the potential for glitches, particularly false alarms. Supporters worry that without strict guidelines, Amber Alerts could go the way of the car alarm - creating a lot of noise without attracting much attention.
“We don’t want the Amber Alert to be the new millennium’s milk carton,” said California Assemblyman George Runner, a Republican who wrote a bill to fund a statewide system.
Many police agencies and broadcast stations are still writing protocols and updating technology to send or receive alerts, adding to the potential for problems and misuse.
In Los Angeles, an Amber Alert for 4-year-old Jessica Cortez was temporarily rescinded when police suspected she may have fallen into a lake and drowned. In San Francisco, an Amber Alert was issued for a Chinese student who was seeking asylum.
“We’re in a learning curve but we’re getting very close to having it down,” said California Highway Patrol Commissioner Spike Helmick.
So far, the systems are operating in such heavily populated areas as greater Washington, D.C., Dallas-Fort Worth and St. Louis.
In Oklahoma, law enforcement agencies representing 90 percent of the population have signed on. But many other police and sheriff’s departments don’t have the training or manpower to participate, said Carl Smith, chief executive of the Oklahoma Association of Broadcasters.
“Some federal money for training law enforcement agencies would help,” he said.
The federal bill sponsored by Sens. Hutchison and Feinstein would provide grants to buy equipment and train authorities.
Parents of missing children said the system has been a blessing.
Patricia Bradbury of Fort Worth, Texas, recalled the morning in 1998 when her infant daughter’s face was staring back at her from television screens after the child was abducted.
An Amber Alert helped bring her home.
“It was like the whole world stopped for me,” Bradbury said. “It was the best thing to know the whole community was out there looking for my child.”