Good Question: What's The Criteria For An Amber Alert?
MINNEAPOLIS (WCCO) -- Since 2003, there have been 28 Amber Alerts in Minnesota. Of those 28, all of children were successfully recovered. The most recent use was in February 2013, when 8-month-old Carlos Orozco was abducted from his South Minneapolis home. He was found four hours later after a teenager called police after receiving the Amber Alert text message on his smartphone. It was first time an Amber Alert was sent via text message through the federal Wireless Emergency Alert system.
In 2002, Minnesota became the seventh state to use the child abduction emergency system. AMBER, or America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was abducted and killed in Texas in 1996.
Each state comes up with its own guidelines for issuing Amber Alerts, but they follow federal recommendations to avoid confusion among the jurisdictions.
First, the victim must be 17-years-old or younger. Second, law enforcement must believe the child has been abducted. Third, investigators must believe the child is in serious danger of bodily harm or death. Fourth, there must be enough descriptive information about the suspect or victim to help the public locate the child. Fifth, the child's information must be entered in the National Criminal Information Center (NCIC) system and be flagged as a child abduction.
"We work very closely with law enforcement to make sure we're reserving the Amber Alert for the most critical cases where we know that child's life is in serious danger," said Janell Rasmussen, Amber Alert coordinator for the state of Minnesota.
Whether or not to issue an Amber Alert starts with investigators at the local level. If they believe the case fits the criteria, they'll bring it to the state to decide if it fits into its Amber Alert plan. Rasmussen says Minnesota has learned from other states that there's a danger in overusing the system if good information isn't available.
"They kind of have a car alarm situation where when they do an Amber Alert, people aren't paying close attention anymore because it's activated so often," she said.
Rasmussen also points out that if a case doesn't rise to the level of an Amber Alert, there are many other tools to try to find missing people. At least 100 times a year, the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension sends out statewide Crime Alerts for missing children where an abduction isn't suspected, missing adults or suspect descriptions. More than 7,200 Minnesota law enforcement agencies, businesses, schools and community members receive these Crime Alerts through fax, email, text or phone.