The Wireless AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between the wireless industry, law-enforcement agencies, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to distribute an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. Consumers who opt in to this program receive the messages free of charge on their wireless devices.
Cricket® and other wireless carriers, acting through CTIA-the Wireless AssociationTM, use a central clearinghouse to distribute a description of the abducted child and suspected abductor.
Statistics show that the first three hours after abduction are most critical to recovering a child alive. Recognizing that wireless technology can help galvanize communities to expedite the search for and safe return of the child, CTIA and its industry partners are pleased to support the AMBER Alert Plan.
By joining efforts with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) and law enforcement agencies, the Wireless AMBER Alert program will serve as the catalyst for the wireless industry's 180-million subscribers to opt-in to receive notices on their wireless devices that can aid in the safe return of an abducted child.
Law enforcement initiates the primary emergency AMBER notification, defines the geographic boundaries of the Alert notification, and has the legal jurisdiction through the child's entry into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) to act upon the information contained in an AMBER Alert.
The Department of Justice (DOJ), the agency responsible for coordination of AMBER Alerts on the national level, has asked the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to act as its agent for coordination of secondary AMBER dissemination. NCMEC's role is to receive AMBER Alerts from DOJ and disseminate those Alerts to secondary distributors, as approved by NCMEC.
Wireless AMBER Alert, an NCMEC-approved secondary distributor, will rapidly transmit the approximately 200-250 abducted children bulletins that are issued annually to wireless carriers to receive and deploy AMBER Alerts to their subscribers in a designated region based on zip code, that have opted-in to receive the bulletins. Information transmitted will be the same regardless of the customer's wireless provider and make and model of their phone.
The Wireless AMBER Alert Plan is available to wireless subscribers in 49 states. Currently, Hawaii is the only state where this service is not available.
Subscribers that have opted into the Wireless AMBER Alert program will only receive a notice on their wireless device if a child has been abducted from the region the subscriber designated through the selection of up to five zip codes during the registration process.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) will call for the transmission of AMBER Alerts when law enforcement has received notification of an abducted child and the following criteria, recommended by the U.S. Department of Justice, has been met:
• There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that abduction has occurred.
• The abduction is of a child age 17 years or younger.
• The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
• There is enough descriptive information about the victim and the abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child.
• The child's name and other critical data elements including the Child Abduction flag have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC).
Approximately 200-250 AMBER Alerts are deployed nationwide each year. You will only receive an AMBER Alert if a notice is sent for one of the zip codes you designated when you opted-in to the program.
You may unsubscribe to the Wireless AMBER Alert program at any time by:
1. Go to www.wirelessamberalerts.com.
2. Enter your mobile number.
3. Follow the directions to be removed from further AMBER Alert distribution.
