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Connecticut Now Sending Amber Alerts Through Facebook

FAIRFIELD COUNTY, Conn. – The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children has partnered with Facebook to send AMBER Alerts to the social network’s community to help law enforcement find missing children in Connecticut and across the nation.

Facebook will now issue AMBER Alerts.

Facebook will now issue AMBER Alerts.

Photo Credit: Facebook

When a child goes missing, the first three hours are critical and the most important thing is to disseminate to the public detailed information about the missing child as quickly as possible.

“When a child is missing, it is critical that we all work together to locate that child,” said Gov. Dannel P. Malloy. “That’s why this partnership is so important – it will provide law enforcement with another tool to communicate vital information to the public in an emergency situation. Disseminating critical information quickly to members of the public and encouraging them to act helps law enforcement find abducted children and reunite them with their families. It’s an important step to keeping Connecticut safe.”

Facebook will complement existing AMBER Alert distribution systems through:

  • Reach – Facebook’s distribution system will get the AMBER Alert to everyone who is logged into Facebook (on both mobile and desktop) during the alert if they are within the designated search area as specified by law enforcement.
  • Comprehensive Information – The alert will include important details about the child such as a photo, description, location of the abduction and any other available information that can be provided to the public to aid in the search for the missing child.
  • Community Involvement – Facebook enables people to share the alert with friends and link to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children for the most up-to-date information about the case. A Connecticut AMBER Alert will include the name and description of the child, a description of the suspected abductor and a description and license plate number of the abductor's vehicle. The Connecticut AMBER Alert system issues an alert only when law enforcement determines that a child was abducted and the child is in imminent danger. This team effort has been used successfully in AMBER Connecticut several times over the last 13 years.

AMBER Alerts are a child abduction alert system that started in the United States in 1996. AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas.

The Connecticut AMBER Alert System has been in place since June 2002.

As technology evolves, child abduction rates have dropped greatly; between 1997 and 2011, U.S. child abduction rates dropped by 31 percent. 

Facebook has already been used to help find missing children. In 2014, an 11-year-old girl was safely recovered after a South Carolina motel employee recognized a photo of her in an AMBER alert she saw on Facebook. The woman called the police, and the child was found, unharmed.

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