CLEVELAND — According to the FBI, every year an estimated 460,000 children are reported missing in the United States.
THE QUESTION
It's no wonder then that it's a frequently asked question: Are Amber Alerts issued for all missing children?
THE SOURCES
To VERIFY the answer to this question, we checked the following sources:
- The Office of Justice Programs in the U.S. Department of Justice
- PROTECT Act of 2003
- Ohio's Amber Alert Plan website
- Northeast Ohio Amber Alert Committee Chair and Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy
WHAT WE FOUND
The "AMBER" in Amber Alert stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response." The system was created in 1996 to help find abducted children, and when the PROTECT Act passed in 2003, it created minimum federal standards for when the alerts can be sent out, which states can then add to.
Today, there are 82 individual Amber Alert plans across the United States. According to Ohio's Amber Alert Plan website, OhioAMBERPlan.org, there are four criteria that must be met before an Amber Alert will be issued in Ohio. Those criteria are:
- Law enforcement confirms the child is under 18 years of age.
- Law enforcement believes the abduction poses a credible threat of immediate danger or serious bodily harm or death to the child.
- There is sufficient descriptive information about the child, the suspect, and/or the circumstances surrounding the abduction to believe that activation of the alert will help locate the child.
- A law enforcement agency determines the child is not a runaway and has not been abducted as a result of a family abduction, unless the investigation determines the child is in immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death.
If your missing child doesn't meet the four criteria, officials can still help you. Northeast Ohio Amber Alert Committee Chair and Newburgh Heights Police Chief John Majoy told 3News' VERIFY:
"The only difference is you don't get the EAS, which is breaking into the television and radio, and you don't get the WE alert, which is a wireless emergency activation which breaks into your cell phones and wakes you up at in the middle of the night or in the morning."
THE ANSWER
So we can VERIFY the answer to the question "Are AMBER Alerts issued for all missing children?" is no. According to the Office of Justice Programs, as of Dec. 31, 2023, there have been 1,186 children brought home safely after Amber Alerts were issued for them since the system started being used in 1996, and 165 kids have been rescued because of wireless emergency alerts.
If you have something you'd like verified, please email the claim or question to verify@wkyc.com or text it to (216) 344-3300.