| Texas Center for the Missing administers the Houston
Regional Amber Plan, a cooperative public service
effort to safely recover abducted kids.
The
Houston Regional Amber Plan is an alert
system designed to help find missing children believed to be abducted.
The thirteen-county Houston region, covering
12,000 square miles and five million people,
includes Austin, Chambers, Colorado, Brazoria,
Fort Bend, Galveston, Harris, Liberty,
Matagorda, Montgomery, Walker, Waller,
and Wharton counties.
The Amber Alert is a notification system used by law enforcement to immediately
inform the media and the community about a child
abduction, and enlist their support in
locating the child and abductor.
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| About
Amber Hagerman |
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In
January 1996, nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was riding
her bicycle on a warm Saturday afternoon when a neighbor
heard the girl scream. The neighbor saw a man pull
Amber off her bike, throw her into the front seat
of his pickup truck, and drive away at a high speed.
The neighbor called police and provided a description
of the suspect and his vehicle, but couldn’t
recall much else. Arlington Police and the FBI
interviewed other neighbors and searched for
the suspect and
vehicle. Local radio and TV stations covered
the story in their regular newscasts.
Four days later, Amber’s body was found
in a drainage ditch four miles away. Her throat
had
been cut. Her kidnapping and murder remain unsolved. |
A concerned citizen contacted a Dallas
area radio station, suggesting the idea that Dallas
radio
stations should repeat news bulletins about abducted
children just like they do severe weather warnings.
The idea was presented to the Association of Radio
Managers (ARM) composed of general managers of
the major radio stations in the Dallas/Fort Worth
area. The general managers agreed that such a program
would provide an important public service and might
help save the life of a child.
he Dallas Amber
Plan was started in July 1997 to help safely recover
missing children that police
believe have been abducted. Since then, the program
has successfully recovered eight children and expanded
to other cities and states nationwide.
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Child
Abduction & Homicide
In 1997 the Attorney General of the
State of Washington produced a report on Child Homicide
: “Because of their rarity among criminal homicides
their complexity, emotion and high profile nature,
they are extremely difficult to investigate.”
In the US approximately 100 children are murdered each
year by strangers
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The
Case for the Amber Alert
Fast action is necessary since, 1)
there is typically over a two hour delay in making
the initial missing child report (60%), and 2) the
vast majority (74%) of the abducted children who are
murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.
Because of these critical time features, it is important
to respond quickly with a neighborhood canvass and
search of the area.”
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Setting
Up A “Perimeter”
“A unique pattern of distance
relationships exists in child abduction murders. The
initial contact site is within 1/4 mile of the victim's
last known location in 80% of cases. Conversely, the
distance between the initial contact site and the murder
site increases to distances greater than 1/4 mile (54%).
The distance from the murder site to the body recovery
site again decreases, to less than 200 feet in 72 percent
of cases.”
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History of the Amber
Plan
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Named
for Amber Hagerman who was abducted outside her
Arlington, Texas home in January of 1996
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Her
body was located 4 days later |
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The Association
of Radio Managers spearheaded the effort and implemented
the first Amber Alert in the
Dallas area in July 1997 |
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There
are currently 88 amber plans in the U.S. credited
with recovering
45+ kids. |
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Houston
Regional Amber Plan (HRAP)
The Houston Regional Amber Plan began
December 7, 2000.
HRAP is a web-based, interactive system designed to
provide broad information dissemination to the public
to assist in the safe recovery of abducted children.
HRAP is widely recognized as the model for Amber Plans
- 90% success rate.
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Has
a training website |
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Provides
quarterly training sessions |
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Provides
24 hour support to users |
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Provides
an In-depth review of each alert - this is critical! |
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Public
email alert sign-up |
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Starting
a local plan
Review the HRAP History and website :www,amber-plan.net
Contact
Beth Alberts at 713-314-3644
or click here to Contact Us
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