Policy Text
Kern County Sheriff’s Office
Policies and Procedures
TITLE:
CHILD ABDUCTION ALERT, (AMBER ALERT)
NO: H-1500
APPROVED:
Donny Youngblood, Sheriff-Coroner
EFFECTIVE:
May 5, 2003
REVIEWED:
10/20/20
REVISED:
03/01/07
UPDATED:
10/20/20
H-1500-1
INTRODUCTION
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) has reported that 74% of
children murdered by non-family members had been killed within the first three hours of their
abduction. Reporting of missing children is often delayed by at least two hours for various
reasons, compounding the critical importance of rapid response.
In 1996, nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped and murdered in Arlington, Texas. The
news of this abduction and murder outraged the community. Concerned individuals contacted
local media and together they developed a system to broadcast special alerts over the airwaves to
help locate abducted children. This became known as the Amber alert system. The NCMEC
uses AMBER as an acro