AMBER Alert
An
AMBER Alert or a
Child Abduction Emergency is a child abduction alert system. Originating in the United States in 1996, there are now similar systems in a number of other countries. AMBER is officially a backronym for
America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, but was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas, in 1996. Alternate regional alert names were once used; in Georgia, "Levi's Call"; in Hawaii, "Maile Amber Alert"; and Arkansas, "Morgan Nick Amber Alert". In the United States, AMBER Alerts are distributed via commercial radio stations, Internet radio, satellite radio, television stations, and cable TV by the Emergency Alert System and NOAA Weather Radio. The alerts are also issued via e-mail, electronic traffic-condition signs, the LED billboards which are located outside of newer Walgreens locations, along with the LED/LCD signs of billboard companies such as Clear Channel Outdoor, CBS Outdoor and Lamar, or through wireless device SMS text messages.