Twenty years ago on January 13, 1996, 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, was abducted and subsequently assaulted and murdered. The tragic events and subsequent investigation of Amber’s death sparked what has grown from a local, to nationwide and now international effort to improve and expand efforts to locate, identify and safely recover abducted children.
The case of Amber Hagerman’s abduction and murder remains unresolved. During the initial investigation, a witness reported seeing a man in a black truck grab her off her bike and drive away. Four days following Amber’s disappearance, a man walking his dog found her body in a drainage ditch in Arlington.
A local citizen, Diane Simone, called a Dallas radio station the day Amber’s body was found and asked if local broadcasters could team up with law enforcement to somehow get information out immediately following a child abduction. Dallas and Fort Worth area broadcasters began work to establish a coordinated system with local law enforcement whereby they could warn the public when a child was kidnapped and in danger. Over the two decades that have followed, the AMBER Alert system has grown through grass-roots efforts at the local, regional and state levels. AMBER Alert programs are now operating in every state across the U.S., and have been developed in other countries around the world.
The AMBER Alert system bears Amber’s name, and also stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. AMBER Alert Programs have helped bring more than 800 children home safely. “If it wasn’t for Amber, we would not have the AMBER Alert today,” Donna Williams, Amber’s mother, told reporters.
Communities across the U.S. joined in observing National AMBER Alert Awareness Day on January 13, 2016. Here is a look at key milestones achieved over the past two decades:
- 2002: AMBER Alerts become nationally focused and highway signs are added to the warning system. President George W. Bush names the first National AMBER Alert Coordinator.
- 2003: The PROTECT Act is signed into law, strengthening the ability of law enforcement and the judicial system to prevent, investigate, prosecute, and punish violent crimes committed against children.
- 2005: A nationwide initiative to train Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) is launched.
- 2011: The Southern Border Initiative implements Alerta AMBER Mexico, a national protocol to coordinate child abductions in the U.S. and Mexico.
- 2015: The AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program launches a new Tribal Database website (www.tribaldatabase.org) to promote awareness and provide access to important child protection and human trafficking prevention resources for tribal communities.
Amber’s mother continues on bravely, with hope that her daughter’s killer will be found. “I’m not going to give up,” she said. “I still have hope that he will be caught one day.”