AOL to Start Issuing 'Amber Alerts' on Web - latimes
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`The Nation
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`AOL to Start Issuing 'Amber Alerts' on Web
`Safety: Officials worry notices of missing children may become too common. The online service would join a planned national system.
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`October 01, 2002 | ARIANNE ARYANPUR | TIMES STAFF WRITER
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`WASHINGTON — Internet provider America Online and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children are launching an online version of "Amber
`alerts," the system that has been used in more than 15 states to try to locate missing children, officials said Monday.
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`The initiative, which AOL said is the first of its kind, allows its customers who register online for the service to receive e-mail alerts via computer, mobile
`phone or pager that a child is missing. Under the Amber alert system, when law enforcement concludes that a child is missing, officials immediately release the
`information to participating local media such as television and radio. In some states, such as California, the public is also notified through road signs.
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`"Now, law enforcement has just added AOL to that list," said Tatiana Gau, AOL senior vice president of integrity assurance. As soon as law enforcement
`officials notify AOL that an alert has been issued, AOL will forward the alert to those paying customers, over age 13, who request the notice.
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`"What this offers across the country is the ability to essentially use a secondary response system that reaches people online," said Ernie Allen, president of the
`National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
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`AOL will officially unveil the program today as President Bush, members of the National Center for Missing Children, law enforcement and parents of
`abducted children convene at the White House's first conference on missing, exploited and runaway children.
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`On Capitol Hill, Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Kay Bailey Hutchison (R-Texas) are sponsoring legislation that would set up a nationwide Amber alert
`system and provide federal funds to states and counties that do not have resources to make the program work.
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`The Amber system--which stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response--was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was
`kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996.
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`The missing children's center estimates that 30 children have been rescued with help from Amber alerts in six years.
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`"There is no question that Amber alerts have been successful in capturing suspects and in returning children safely to their families," said Los Angeles Police
`Department spokesman Sgt. John Pasquariello.
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`"The only thing that we need to be concerned about is oversaturation or overuse of the system where we get into a 'cry wolf' situation where people may start
`ignoring the alerts."
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`"What is most important with this system is that it is reliable and that we use it [judiciously]."
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`While Gau acknowledged the potential for dulling the public's attention, she said AOL will issue alerts only to those of AOL's 26 million U.S. members who
`register to receive them. It will function like the company's existing alerts, which issue news and weather warnings to registered members.
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`According to AOL officials, members will also have the option of receiving alerts from nearby states, so that a user from California, for instance, could receive
`alerts from Nevada and Oregon.
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`The joint initiative comes after a summer of missing child cases that garnered national media attention--one of the most prominent of which involved 14-year-
`old Elizabeth A. Smart, who was abducted from her Salt Lake City bedroom while her parents slept.
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`Pasquariello said media coverage contributes to the notion that missing child cases are on the rise. "The reality is that children aren't abducted at epidemic
`rates," he said.
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`Of the 63 cities, states and counties that presently have Amber alerts, 58 have signed up for the AOL service, officials said.
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`"We know in these cases that time is the enemy and that if we can provide people with timely and reliable information through this online system, we can help
`solve these cases," Allen said.
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`The AOL service is a "step in moving toward national coordination efforts on Amber alerts," Gau said.
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`Copyright 2017 Los Angeles Times
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