History: The original Amber Plan was implemented in 1996. The plan was named for Amber Hagerman, brutally murdered in Texas when she was 9 years old. In response, the community requested that radio stations broadcast an “alert” when a child was reported missing and endangered. Since then more than 46 states and and over 47 participating regions developed Amber Plans.

In 2000, North Carolina established the North Carolina Child Alert Notification (NC CAN) program in response to the need to locate endangered missing children. In 2003 this was renamed the Amber Alert System when Governor Easley signed the statewide system into law. This established cooperation between TV/radio broadcasters and local law enforcement agencies. 

Necessity: A study conducted in the State of Washington concluded that every year there are about 100 noncustodial child abductions annually that result in murder. Of those 100, 74% are murdered within the first 3 hours. This requires a plan that would enable police agencies to spread information quickly to find these missing and endangered children as soon as possible.

Amber Alert Criteria:

• The child is 17 years of age or younger AND
• The child is believed:
• To have been abducted OR
• To be in danger of injury or death AND
• The abduction is not known or suspected to be by a parent of the child, unless the child’s life is suspected to be in danger AND
• The child is not believed to be a runway or voluntarily missing AND
• The abduction has been reported to and investigated by a law enforcement agency.

If the abduction of a child is known or suspected to be by a parent or legal guardian of a child, the center, in its discretion, may disseminate the information through Amber if the child is in danger.

Missing and Endangered Haywood County, NC children: None

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