CodeAmber.org

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Contact: Bryant Harper, Founder & President Gary McKenzie News Director Gary McKenzie-Performances include CBS, NBC, RKO Radio Networks anchor and narrations with The U.S. Air Force Band at Constitution Hall in Washington, D.C. Video The AMBER Plan was created in 1996 as a powerful legacy to 9 y ear-old Amber Hagerman, a bright little girl who was kidnapped and brutally murdered while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. The tragedy shocked and outraged the entire community. Residents contacted radio stations in the Dallas area and suggested they broadcast special "alerts" over the airwaves so that they could help prevent such incidents in the future. In August 2002 Bryant Harper, Founder and President of Code Amber was horrified by the viciousness of what seemed to be an epidemic of child abductions around the United States and Canada. Being both a parent and grandparent, Harper like other parents and guardians, is concerned for the safety and welfare of his family. In response to these crimes he developed the Code Amber Alert Ticker to provide every web site and computer owner with the ability to display Amber Alerts on their web site and their computer desktop by adding a Code Amber Alert Ticker to afford law enforcement with millions of concerned and informed citizens extending their 'eyes on the streets." The Ticker is a single line of code that loads a Java Script from the CodeAmber News Service servers and is updated anytime CANS is notified of an Amber Alert or CodeAmber Alert in the US and Canada. The Missing On average, 2,185 children under the age of 18 are reported missing each day. That adds up to more than 797,500 children annually. Of that total, almost that 204,000, or about 25 percent, were family abductions. An estimated 58,200 were abducted by someone other than a family member. Of those, 115 were taken by strangers and kept for a period or killed. At least 322 children had been recovered safely through the AMBER Alert program. The statistics on child abduction are important because it defines the need for, and importance of, quick action on children's disappearances. In a country with some 59 million children, abductions by a stranger are perhaps the most terrifying of crimes. But they are also the rarest. There are about 114,600 such stranger abductions attempted each year, and about 3,200 to 4,600 or around 4 percent, are successful, according to a study by the U.S. Justice Department. The vast majority of missing children are not kidnapped at all. They are runaways and throwaways, kids who leave and don't come back or are told not to come back. about 200 to 300, are what the FBI calls "stereotypical" kidnappings, where a child is gone overnight, transported over some distance, intended to be kept by the perpetrator or even killed. These incidents make up far less than 1 percent of the total stranger abductions. Advocates for missing children would like to see all cases get the attention that high-profile incidents receive, but the vast majority of abduction cases go relatively unnoticed.

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