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Texas Center for the Missing received their first grant about 2 years ago which enabled them to create my position – the Emergency Alert Coordinator Position. This grant is a 3 year grant. In this position I am responsible for issuing the Amber and Silver Alerts in the 14 county Houston/Galveston Region. Additionally, I also provide all of the law enforcement training in those counties for the alerts which is a 4 hour TCOLE Certified class. I am now in the process of creating an 8 hour presentation which will include the first 4 hours of the alerts and the remaining 4 hours will be on Alzheimers/Dementia and Autism for law enforcement.
Texas Center for the Missing has also received calls for interviews. Our case worker Melissa Rangel handled the interview. She turned down another interview.
At Texas Center for the Missing – I am the Emergency Alert Coordinator for our 14 county region, so my cell phone is listed for law enforcement to call to activate an alert. Law Enforcement can also choose to call Texas DPS. We are a non-profit organization with only 4 employees, so I am responsible for answering the phone 24/7, 365. My co-workers are gracious enough, if I have some event or vacation I am able to forward my phone to them. Depending on what I am doing, will depend on wether or not I do forward it.
The Houston Regional Amber Alert does have After Action Reports completed and returned after each alert. The Advisory Committee, comprised of law enforcement, media, and community advocates, meets semi-annually (more or less, as needed) to review and discuss the activations. It is a valuable process and we fine-tune and make significant policy changes from these discussions, when warranted.
The Houston Regional Amber Alert System is run by Texas Center for the Missing, a nonprofit organization, so I’m not sure if this will be helpful, but I am on-call 24/7 and do not receive any additional compensation for that. I usually try to take some comp time equal to the time an Amber Alert is active if it’s nights or weekends (or vacation time).
The Houston Regional Amber Alert System does not have green alerts. The first I had heard of this alert was at the National Conference last month.
The Houston Regional Amber Alert System does not have a formal program so much as some standard practices that include:
1) Quarterly meetings of a long-term missing family support group that meets quarterly and participates in activities for Texas Missing Person Day, Houston Missing Person Day, Missing in Harris County Day and National Missing Children’s Day. 2) We also highlight long-term missing cases on our web page and social media platforms and send out cards and special notifications, typically on the anniversary of the missing date and/or on the missing persons birthday. 3) And, finally, we work with our local Crime-Stoppers sometimes to highlight long-term cases to try to drive in more leads and tips.
