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AMBER Alerts

Three 'AMBER Alerts' stories January 2015 - October 2015
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Uber pushing AMBER Alerts to its drivers nationwide, after initial pilot in Colorado

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Oct 14 2015 - 4:41 am PT
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Th Uber Technologies Inc. car service application (app) is demonstrated for a photograph on an Apple Inc. iPhone in New York, U.S., on Wednesday, Aug. 6, 2014. For San Francisco-based Uber Technologies Inc. which recently raised $1.2 billion of investors' financing at $17 billion valuation, New York is its biggest by revenue among the 150 cities in which it operates across 42 countries. The Hamptons are a pop-up market for high-end season weekends where the average trip is three time that of an average trip in New York City. Photographer: Victor J. Blue/Bloomberg via Getty Images

Uber has announced that it will be sending location-based AMBER alerts to its drivers across all 180 U.S. cities in which it operates, following a successful trial in Colorado.

AMBER alerts provide information on missing children, including description and last known location, so that the public can be on the look out for them. Since the launch of the scheme in 1996, a total of 722 children have been safely found as a direct result of an AMBER alert.

Robert Hoever, director of special programs at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, described the Uber program as “an incredible asset.”

The AMBER Alert program’s success is built on the ability to reach the right people at the right time with these potentially life-saving messages. Uber’s presence in communities all across the country will be an incredible asset and we are proud to team up with Uber to increase the reach of the AMBER Alert program and help bring more missing children home safely.

Apps have proven a powerful addition to the AMBER alerts program, with mobile apps from Facebook and Waze already supporting them. Google added the alerts to search and maps back in 2012.

Via The Verge

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Waze app to get AMBER alerts, help users look out for missing & abducted children

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Mar 4 2015 - 5:57 am PT
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amber

Waze, the free crowdsourced navigation and traffic app, is to get AMBER alerts in the U.S., helping users look out for missing and abducted children. You’ll only see alerts for children in your local area, and for safety reasons details will only appear once your vehicle has been stationary for at least ten seconds.

AMBER alerts are created by law enforcement agencies to quickly alert members of the public to children who have been reported missing or are believed to have been abducted. Waze says the app will scan for new alerts every ten minutes, though once you’ve dismissed an alert it won’t be shown again for a further week.

Alerts will display all the information available, which will normally include a photo of the child, their name, age, description, where they were last seen, what clothing they were wearing and details of any vehicle known or believed to have been involved.

The update is expected to roll out shortly in the U.S. only. Waze is a free download from Google Play. It was reported yesterday that the app may in future be pre-installed on Android devices following its integration into Google Mobile Services.

Facebook added AMBER alerts to its mobile apps in January.

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Facebook adding AMBER Alerts to its mobile apps and web

Avatar for Zac Hall Jan 13 2015 - 6:52 am PT
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Facebook AMBER Alert

Facebook shared its latest safety initiative today with a new feature focused on rescuing missing children. Through a partnership with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Facebook will now include AMBER Alerts in the timeline of its users boosting exposure of the critical information needed in such cases.

When local or state police determine that a case qualifies for an AMBER Alert, the alert is issued by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and distributed through the Facebook system with any available information, including a photograph of the missing child, a license plate number, the name and description of the child and suspected abductor.


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