The constant smile, the twinkle in his eye and his unmistakable New Jersey accent makes Bob Hoever unforgettable. His official title is Associate Director of Special Projects, Missing Children Division for the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC). Unofficially, Hoever is the "Waldo" of AMBER Alert training. He trains nearly every week of the year, and any picture of an AMBER Alert training will likely have Hoever in the midst.
Teaching about AMBER Alerts became a labor of love for Hoever after a rush introduction to the program in 2002. Hoever had been working missing child cases for the New Jersey State Police since 1985, and his supervisor called him into an emergency meeting to talk about two girls who were abducted the day before in California. The Governor had just announced that New Jersey would have an AMBER Alert Program in three days and Hoever was going to be the State AMBER Alert Coordinator.
"That was a defining moment," said Hoever. "We knew we had to have it ready by Monday and we knew we needed to use other means of notification besides broadcasters." Hoever was prepared because he had already heard about AMBER Alerts through NCMEC and started developing a child abduction plan with Pennsylvania and New York.
Two weeks later the first AMBER Alert was issued after police received a report that a child had been abducted. It did not take long before the child was dropped off in the same area of the reported abduction. Police became suspicious the victim was not telling the truth and the boy confessed he was throwing snowballs at cars and one motorist decided to take him to his parents. "We assume the motorist heard the AMBER Alert and took off," said Hoever.
Another memorable alert happened after witnesses said a man threw a girl into the back of a white van and took off quickly. A mother heard the alert and told police it may be her husband and daughter. The police found the girl at school and Hoever said the media was ready to criticize him for issuing the alert. But all concerns ended when Hoever pulled out a map showing recent abductions in the area by a man in a white van. "We always tip the scale on the safety of the child," he said. "It showed the AMBER Alert worked and we saved thousands of hours trying to find out if the girl was safe."
During the early years of the AMBER Alert Program, State AMBER Alert Coordinators had to learn from the successes and mistakes of others. "We really did learn from each other very quickly," said Hoever. "The greatest experience I ever had was sharing all the lessons learned from all the other AMBER Alert Coordinators."
"The most gratifying and rewarding thing for me is to see how the program has safely rescued more than 500 children and brought them home to their families. It does not matter what state that occurs in; we are all part of the AMBER Alert family. Everyone has played a part in that."
In 2004, Hoever retired from the New Jersey State Police and began working for NCMEC. Besides working with Fox Valley Technical College in the AMBER Alert Program, Hoever is the Team Adam Program Manager and liaison to Tribal law enforcement, Missing Child Clearinghouse Managers and AMBER Alert Coordinators.
Hoever said his passion for the AMBER Alert Program is flamed by the fact he is the father of three children. "Having children yourself makes you realize how precious children are. It also makes you realize how vulnerable they are and that it is up to us to make sure they are ok."
He believes more abducted children are safe because technology, training and teamwork keep getting better. "The speed in which children are being recovered now is amazing," added Hoever. "People are working as a team better than ever before."