A child abduction alert system is an alert system designed to produce a coordinated response, by the emergency services and media, if a child is abducted.
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At present, there are alert systems in Belgium, France, Germany, Greece and the United Kingdom.[1][2] However, the European Union (EU) does not have a Union-wide alert system. Gerry and Kate McCann, whose daughter has disappeared, spoke to the European Parliament, on 10 April 2008, and pressed for the establishment of an EU system.[2] The McCanns are setting up a child abduction information hotline, that will be available across Europe, that will use the number 116 000.[3]
The UK has developed the Child Rescue Alert, similar to the American AMBER Alert.[4] The system works in a way, where in the local area of the suspected abduction, radio and television broadcasts are immediately interrupted (even in some cases during mid-speech) and listeners/viewers are provided details of anything to look out for. Some counties include Variable message signs which alerts drivers on major roads to be on the lookout for that missing person or a car on the road.
In England, the counties of Hampshire, Leicestershire, Surrey, Sussex, Gloucestershire, Cambridgeshire, Bedfordshire, Norfolk, Derbyshire, Suffolk, Thames Valley, Wiltshire, and Somerset, and the London Metropolitan Police Service, have adopted a similar program called the Child Rescue Alert system. Sussex was the first to launch the system, on November 14, 2002.[5] It is based on and has alert requirements similar to the American system.[6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14]
There are four key criteria in the UK's system to be met before a Child Rescue Alert is issued:
Members of the public will be encouraged to keep their eyes and ears open for anything that may help the police in finding the abducted child. If they see anything they should call the police on 999.[15]
On 20 June 2007, the first such alert for a long period was issued.
The AMBER Alert system is a notification to the general public, by media outlets in Canada and in the United States, issued when police confirm that a child has been abducted. AMBER is a backronym for America's Missing: Broadcasting Emergency Response, and was named after a 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996.