Sunday January 13, 2008, is the national AMBER Alert Awareness Day.  This day honors the memory of Amber Hagerman, the 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered while riding her bike in Arlington, Texas in 1996. Her abduction and murder led the nation on a crusade to add an additional level of protection to our children.  January 13^th is the twelfth anniversary of Amber’s abduction.

In the State of Connecticut, the AMBER Alert Plan unites local and state law enforcement, Radio & TV stations, the DOT, the Connecticut Lottery, AT&T, AOL, and members of the public can work together to save an abducted child from harm. The goal of the AMBER Alert is to instantly alert the entire community with a physical description of a victim child suspect and or a suspects car to enable the public to be law enforcement’s eyes and ears to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child.

Due to the consistent manner in which it operates, the AMBER Alert program continues to be an effective tool to help in the recovering of an abducted child. In the State of Connecticut the AMBER Alert has only been activated six times since 2003. The ten children associated with these Amber Alert activations were safely and quickly recovered by Law Enforcement.

The Connecticut Child AMBER Alert Plan is a solid partnership between the Connecticut State   Police, the Connecticut Chiefs of Police Association, the Connecticut Broadcasters Association The Connecticut Lottery, the Connecticut Department of Transportation and AT&T, and AOL. This partnership is trained to quickly disseminate information regarding an abducted child and/or a suspect to the public via radio and television announcements, highway message signs, and lottery machines. 

The AMBER Alert Plan is a very successful tool that law enforcement may utilize to assist in combating the horrific and heartbreaking crimes that our children often face after being abducted.  The success of the plan sends a strong message that crime against our children is unacceptable and that as a society, we will work together to track down these perpetrators and recover the children that they intend to harm.

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