However, the U.S. Department of Justice issues the following "guidance", which most states are said to "adhere closely to" (in the U.S.):[17] Many law enforcement agencies have not used #2 as a criterion, resulting in many parental abductions triggering an Amber alert, where the child is not known or assumed to be at risk of serious injury or death.

[citation needed] It is recommended that Amber alert data immediately be entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) National Crime Information Center.

[citation needed] For incidents which do not meet Amber alert criteria, the United States Department of Justice developed the Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) program to assist local agencies.

[22] Four days after her abduction, near midnight, a man walking his dog discovered Amber's naked body in a creek behind an apartment complex with severe laceration wounds to her neck.

[25] God's Place International Church donated the first office space for the organization, and as the search for Amber's killer continued, PASO received almost-daily coverage in local media.

Williams and Richard Hagerman then began collecting signatures in Texas, which they planned to present to then-Governor George W. Bush as a sign that people wanted more stringent laws for sex offenders.

[26] In July 1996, Bruce Seybert (whose own daughter was a close friend of Amber)[27] and Richard Hagerman attended a media symposium in Arlington.

Wheeler, a reporter from radio station KRLD, approached the Dallas police chief shortly afterward with Seybert's ideas and launched the first ever Amber Alert.

[29] Diana Simone, a Texas resident who had been following the news, contacted the KDMX radio station and proposed broadcasts to engage passers-by in helping locate missing children.

These alerts were sent all at once via pagers, faxes, emails, and cell phones with the information immediately posted on the Internet for the general public to view.

One such case, the kidnapping and murder of Samantha Runnion, prompted California to establish an Amber alert system on July 24, 2002.

The bill also provided $25 million in federal matching grants for states to establish Amber alert programs and necessary equipment purchases, such as electronic highway signs.

[37] The alerts were offered digitally beginning in November 2002, when America Online began a service allowing people to sign up to receive notification via computer, pager, or cell phone.

"[41] The Alberta government committed to spending more than CA$1 million to expanding the province's emergency warning system so that it could be used effectively for Amber Alerts.

[citation needed] Over the years, the program gathered more partners in order for the alert to be communicated on different media platforms.

[citation needed] Ontario furthered its reach beyond media and highway signs by offering Amber alerts on the province's 9,000 lottery terminal screens.

[47] After the abduction and murder of Victoria Stafford, an online petition was started by Suzie Pereira, a single mother of 2 children who gathered over 61,000 signatures, prompting a review of the Amber Alert.

[citation needed] AMBER Alert Europe is a neutral platform for the exchange of knowledge, expertise, and best practices on the issue of missing children and its roots causes.

To contribute to a safer environment for children, it connects experts from 44 non-governmental and governmental organisations, as well as business entities from 28 countries across Europe.

[citation needed] Its activities cover prevention and awareness-raising, training, research, and child alerting, as well as launching initiatives aimed at impacting policies and legislation in the area of children’s rights.

[citation needed] Since then, its network has expanded and now encompasses different experts from a variety of backgrounds who make their know-how and experiences available to improve existing practices and procedures for a fast and safe recovery of children gone missing.

The system enables the police to immediately alert press and public nationwide, by means of electronic highway signs, TV, radio, social media, PCs, large advertising screens (digital signage), email, text messages, apps, RSS news feeds, website banners and pop-ups.

[citation needed] In March 2023, the General Directorate of National Security of Morocco developed a system in cooperation with Meta Platforms based on the Amber Alert, named "Tifli Moukhtafi" (lit.

There were 48 alerts for children who had not been abducted at all, but were lost, ran away, involved in family misunderstandings (for example, two instances where the child was with grandparents), or as the result of hoaxes.

Finally, the implied causal model of alert (rapid recovery can save lives) is in a sense the opposite of reality: in the worst abduction scenarios, the intentions of the perpetrator usually guarantee that anything public officials do will be "too slow".

[87] In 2024, the Texas Department of Public Safety sent a blue alert at 4:50 a.m. to cell phones across the state, some as far as eight hours' drive away from the incident location.

[81] The alert prompted thousands of complaints to the Federal Communications Commission,[80] along with public expressions of disbelief that the state government would expect private individuals to wake up in the middle of the night to search for the suspect.

In Los Angeles, an Amber alert issued in October 2002 that was displayed on area freeway signs caused significant traffic congestion.

[91] The state of Wisconsin only displays Amber alerts on freeway signs if it is deemed appropriate by the transportation department and a public safety agency.

The 39-cent stamp features a chalk pastel drawing by artist Vivienne Flesher of a reunited mother and child, with the text "AMBER ALERT saves missing children" across the pane.