Amber Alert
Having a missing child has been every parent’s worst dream from time immemorial, yet it is increasingly common today. Despite the work of many pioneers in the criminal justice field, children still go missing every day. Sometimes they run away. Other times, they fall victim to some kind of natural disaster. More often than not, however, it is another adult who is responsible for the disappearance. Usually they can be found and, if found in time, can be returned home alive.
The Amber alert program was designed to do this. Amber alerts were named after a high-profile disappearance case where the child might have been saved if she’d been found in time. The great thing about Amber warnings is that they get the information out quickly to a lot of people. Because of broadcast TV, the Internet, and news radio, people have the options of looking for missing child alerts whenever they want. The difference is that now these alerts are displayed prominently on billboards along the highway. When an Amber alert goes out, many transportation billboards will immediately display information about a vehicle that is suspected to contain the child. That way, anyone who sees that car or truck driving along the road can help the police out and report it.
I really like the idea of the Amber alert. Most of the time when new criminal justice programs are put into effect, they amount to little more than scaremongering. A politician will increase the maximum penalty or the minimum penalty for child endangerment, or require criminals who prey on children to register with the local police. In my opinion, these kind of programs don’t really do very much except feed the public fear and insecurity over child safety issues. What is nice about the Amber alert program is that it can actually do something. By getting the word out quickly, it is possible to save a child before it is too late. The more people looking for the missing children, the more likely it is that they will be found before they disappear forever.
The only problem with the Amber alert is that not enough people are familiar with it. When you’re driving along the road, you have the tendency to tune out information that doesn’t look relevant. If you see Amber warnings on a road sign, you might not know what they mean and forget all about them. After all they don’t concern traffic updates. I hope that this article will help convince people to pay more attention to an Amber alert if they see one.