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Amber
program alerts Joplin area Staff Writer The
Amber Alert system is making its way to southwest Missouri. The
system, which alerts the public when a child is abducted, began in Texas
and has been established by several states in the nation. While
Missouri, Oklahoma and Kansas all have plans for statewide systems,
local agencies have their own plans for the tri-state area. When
you have such easy access to Kansas and Oklahoma and here, we really
need a regional plan that encompasses our area, said Greg Dagnan,
chairman for the Amber Alert Committee. When you need it, you need it
bad, and we don t want to be caught unprepared. While
the alert system could be used for other situations, the local system
would only be used if a child abduction is confirmed by law enforcement
agencies. The
danger is overuse, Dagnan said.
If the public begins to see it a lot, then they will begin to
ignore it. So
far, more than 20 local law enforcement and media agencies have become
involved. These agencies include police departments in Joplin, Carthage,
Webb City, and Grove, Okla., the Newton and Jasper County sheriff s
departments and the Missouri Highway Patrol. Media
agents will be supplied with the equipment necessary to receive
abduction information and broadcast it to the public. The basic system
works like the Emergency Alert System used when severe weather warnings
are issued. Once an abduction is confirmed, pertinent information is
sent out to media resources by fax and e-mail. In the future,
information would also be distributed via the Internet. I
believe the Internet and fax machines would enhance the expediency of
presenting the information, said Ron Peterson, president of KMXL
95.1. Peterson,
who is also a nine-county tri-state operational area coordinator for the
EAS, said the EAS equipment cannot currently handle all information
necessary for Amber Alerts. He hopes EAS will be able to upgrade the
equipment to enable transmition of information. The
Amber Alert, which is an acronym meaning America s Missing: Broadcast
Emergency Response, has had success in other areas of the nation. Dagnan
believes a local system could possibly prevent some cases of abduction.
Anyone planning to abduct a child would realize that once the abduction
is confirmed, the entire community would know about it.immediately. I
believe it would work and work well, Peterson said. Dagnan
said within the last couple years there have been a few cases where the
Amber Alert could have been used. One case involved a mother who left
her child in a dumpster and would not tell authorities where the baby
was. Another case involved a teen-age girl being abducted near 15th
Street. Hardware
and software training is offered for agencies participating in an Amber
Alert program. Each medium will announce confirmed abductions according
to an established protocol. Television stations will broadcast the
photos and descriptions every 15-30 minutes. Radio stations will read
descriptions of suspects, abductees and present any additional
information every 15-20 minutes. Dagnan
hopes the system will never have to be used, but if it is needed, it
should be up and running by the beginning of the new year. |