Phil Keith had just retired in 2004 as the police chief of Knoxville, Tennessee, when he was given a monumental task: make sure every state, territory and the District of Columbia have a consistent and effective AMBER Alert program within two years. Many states and communities had a child abduction alert system but the programs varied in size, criteria, and capability.
"One of the driving tenants of the development of the AMBER Alert system was to not decide what level of participation there would be but to make the network seamless and let the local, Tribal, regional, and state governments make the most informed decision best meeting their needs," said Keith. "This strategy is still in place today."
Keith put together a small team of professionals who understood teamwork, a strong work ethic and a "relentless sense of urgency to help recover missing children." The team listened to law enforcement officers who knew what did and did not work. They reached their goal in 18 months and wanted to do more.
"It was very clear the U.S. Department of Justice AMBER Alert Initiative was more than highway signs and messaging," said Keith. "The program had to create a voluntary seamless network of AMBER Alert Plans designed to rescue and recover missing, endangered and abducted children."
The team used best practices on investigations, searches, policies, and technologies to help good AMBER Alert programs become better. Team members invited abduction victims and their families to learn about the strengths and shortfalls they witnessed firsthand. They discovered and developed new ways to recover children like the Child Abduction Response Team, Endangered Missing Advisory, AMBER Alert in Indian Country Initiative and the Southern Border Initiative and using social media, including sending AMBER Alerts through the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children's secondary distribution program.
"This is not to say there were not 'bumps in the road,' bruised feelings or some unintentional temporary derailments, but the bottom line was the focus on protecting children," said Keith. "We pushed the envelope at times to gain acceptance, secure sincere team efforts at all levels of government and were very careful to be inclusive rather than exclusive."
Funding for training has always been difficult to obtain on a federal, state, and local level. Keith had to find ways to teach more people with less money. Instead of bringing hundreds of people to be trained by a few experts, he began sending the experts to train hundreds of AMBER Alert partners where they worked. More than 18,700 people have also been trained through eLearning courses.
Now nearly a decade later, Keith has retired from the AMBER Alert Program. Jim Walters, who has been involved with the AMBER Alert Program since its beginnings, has assumed the position as Director of the AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program. He credits the team for bringing the AMBER Alert Program to its current level and he believes teamwork will be essential to keep the momentum going.
"We have already seen 'bad guys' let children go once they hear AMBER Alerts have been issued, so we are headed in the right direction," concluded Keith. "However, we have to be ever vigilant in our efforts as there are some really evil people in the world who bring great risk and harm to our children."
Keith's Parting Thoughts on:
Child Abduction Response Team (CART)
These teams are built from the bottom up in most communities and represent the true intent of state, local, and Tribal communities to be prepared to respond to episodes of missing, endangered, or abducted children. This model program should remain the flagship initiative of the U.S. Department of Justice and be expanded into as many communities as possible.
Endangered Missing Advisory
The common recurring question about AMBER Alerts was “what to do if my child does not meet the criteria.” The Endangered Missing Advisory addresses the gap for persons over the age of 17, special needs persons, and addresses a population neglected by most everyone, the “endangered missing and runaways.” Today over 43 states and a number of local communities have adopted a form of the Endangered Missing Advisory Program.
AMBER Alert in Indian Country
This initiative was designed to meet the culturally sensitive needs of life in Tribal communities and the unique challenges Tribal members face every day. We learned early on not to layer another program on the Tribes, but rather utilize existing programs and efforts to compliment the work achieved and give AMBER Alert a true meaning of creating greater capacity and skills to respond to children in crisis among Tribal communities.
The Southern Border Initiative
Our partners on both sides of the border demonstrated their dedication and resolve to make a difference in missing children and after only 18 months we had “Alerta AMBER” throughout Mexico. Many of the officials supported the Alerta AMBER, even though there is a potential grave consequence by organized criminal enterprises not interested in the welfare of children and were most likely involved in the trafficking of children for commercial sexual exploitation.
AMBER Alerts in Social Media
Technology has been a great tool to advance the AMBER Alert messaging. In the coming years use of the social media will become a more localized effort as it should be, as the local communities know best what is needed and the urgency in getting “other eyes” looking for missing children.