The Gila River Indian Community is getting ready to make sure the Tribe's AMBER Alert plan is up and running by December. Tribal leaders are busy making sure they have a plan in place and the technology and resources to make it all work.
“Gila River is definitely one of our shining stars,” said Betsy Brown, senior project coordinator for FirstPic, Inc., a government consulting agency that is helping to bring AMBER Alerts into Indian Country. “They have attended 100% of the meetings, they have met all the guidelines, and they have buy-in from Tribal leaders, which is what has made them so successful.”
The Gila River Tribe is one of 10 pilot Indian Nations working with FirstPic, Inc., Fox Valley Technical College, and the Department of Justice's Office of Justice Programs (OJP) to implement AMBER Alert plans.
Mark Hill, Communications Engineer for the Gila River Police Department, told the Gila River Indian News that a grant for the pilot has helped provide the ability to quickly issue AMBER Alerts. “My goal is to have an AMBER Alert able to be issued within five minutes. Hopefully, before they get off the community,” said Hill. “This is compared to the current system that can take up to an hour.”