Amber Alerts the Texas Connection to Keeping Children Safe

You are sitting in a meeting and your phone goes off. Heck, the whole meeting is full of phones that are vibrating and beeping. It's an Amber Alert. We see the details. We know what that means. A child is missing.

Once that happens the faster you can get the information out the better. It usually includes stuff like the description of the child, if there is a person suspected of taking the child we get that information. Any info that can help like the possible car they are in. We get that too.

When Did the Amber Alert Start?

This all became a thing back in 1996. Before then there were no alerts to help get out the information to a broad audience like that. Before 1996 there were no Amber Alerts.

It all started with a little girl named Amber. Amber Hagerman was just 9 years old when she went out for a bike ride in Arlington, Texas—something a lot of kids do. On this day in 1996, Amber never came home.

She was later discovered murdered. Her death led to the introduction of the AMBER Alert. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. Before Amber was missing there was not a nationwide way to get the information out fast and to everywhere.

Paying Attention to Those Amber Alerts is Important

Since then and the introduction of the Amber Alert we know when a child goes missing. That is the way it should be. Information is shared on a large platform. Whether you see the alert on your phone, you may see it on digital billboards, hear or see about it on the radio or TV, or even share the information on social media, people know about it.

The more the information is shared and in front of people the better chance of the child being located. Unfortunately, the ending was not positive for Amber Hagerman, and her killer has never been found. Her memory is alive through the widespread usage of what we have come to know as the Amber Alert.

Amber may not have come back that day in 1996 but because of her many other children have. We have the Amber Alert to thank for that.