Amber Alerts go wireless

[TexasStooge]

By DAVE CASSIDY / WFAA ABC 8

DALLAS, Texas/WASHINGTON D.C. — The Amber Alert abducted-child warning system is about to go wireless.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children is one of the groups involved in announcing a program Tuesday that will provide news of an endangered child as a free text message to mobile phone users.

Customers who have wireless phones from Sprint, Verizon, Nextel and Cingular can receive the new service. Other carriers were expected to join the program.

In the nine years since Amber Alerts were started in response to the kidnap and murder of Arlington youngster Amber Hagerman, communities all over the country have found new ways to spread the word.

Connecticut developed ID cards to get out as much information as quickly as possible.

"Being quick is essential in recovering an abducted child," said Connecticut Lt. Governor Jodi Rell.

Speed is always the key as the word is now spread on TV and radio stations along with freeway signs.

"My daughter's death is saving your child's life," said Donna Norris, Amber Hagerman's mother, when President Bush signed the nationwide Amber Alert program into law two years ago.

And on Tuesday, the wireless industry gets involved in the process to send alerts to some 180 million mobile subscribers.

But for all the success stories, the problem remains. "Eight hundred-thousand children are reported missing every year in this country—more than 2,000 kids a day," noted Ernie Allen, president of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Allen said he has seen an enormous increase in the fear and anger parents are feeling as recent cases of children abducted by strangers—and sometimes by relatives—seem to make Amber Alets even more important.