The Success of Mobile AMBER Alerts

Everyone in the community needs to assist, which is one of the goals of the mobile AMBER alerts ever since the whole AMBER alert system was conceptualized in 1996.

Technology is constantly evolving to help people in communities get in touch especially during more serious situations where the public needs to be notified by officials.

Young children can go missing without warning anywhere in the country and without an alert system, the odds of these people being found are very slim even if responsive action by officials is taken.

How AMBER Alerts Work

AMBER stands for "America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response. AMBER was also the chosen name of the system because Amber Hagerman, a 9-year old girl who was murdered led to officials wanting to come up with a diverse communications system in tracking missing people under 18. Currently, AMBER alerts use all of the modern public channels such as radio stations, cable television networks, satellite streams, and various means over the Internet such as E-mail.

They can even be displayed in larger LED billboards like the ones near newer Walgreens drugstores. With cellular phones being more popular than ever before and with many new models becoming available, mobile alerts are starting to be sent out to increase widespread coverage.

Activation Criteria

Whether they are ordinary AMBER alerts being sent or mobile AMBER alerts, these alerts are very likely to be received if there is a child that is reported to be in a serious situation (often times life threatening). The actual activation criteria depends on the state, but the child must be 17 years or younger and must be confirmed by the law enforcement officials to verify their authenticity.

Additional information including the victim's description along with the captor and vehicle used should also be supplied as the information will be included in the mobile alerts to help those that received the alert to be aware of what's going on.

Further Evolution of mobile AMBER alerts

AMBER alerts are not only being sent through SMS. Just a few years ago in 2007, the Mobile Giving Foundation partnered up with the AmberWatch foundation to allow the latest GPS tracking technologies to be used to keep children safe. This makes the mobile AMBER alerts more informative since the service allows such alerts to be sent to friends and other family members in a more descriptive fashion where the accurate GPS data regarding the child's current position can be retrieved by using a cellular phone or PC as a locator.

This also allows parents to do occasional checkups to ensure their kids are safe. A special feature called the "Phone Tree" allows the system to continue to be used even if a primary contact cannot be reached and waits for a secondary contact to be reached.

The mobile alerts includes all forms of mobile communication including text messaging, voice, web, and e-mail avenues for keeping in contact. This service will work well alongside the current AMBER alerts system which should decrease the number of unexpected events going terribly wrong.

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