AMBER Advocate Magazine

Issue 34

The 2018 National AMBER Alert Symposium brings together partners from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico in Orlando, Florida, with a focus on how technology impacts child exploitation and abduction—and how to use emerging tools to prevent and respond to these crimes. Alan R. Hanson, Principal Deputy Assistant Attorney General, commends AMBER Alert partners and recognizes Donna Uzzell for her contributions to the Child Abduction Response Team (CART) program. Fiona James, Deputy Director of the AWARN Alliance, introduces AWARN, an advanced alerting system powered by NextGen ATSC 3.0 television technology, capable of delivering rich media and geo-targeted alerts to unlimited devices. Maureen Heads from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) discusses the rise in family abductions and the legal complexities they present. Amy Bloxom, mother of murder victim Justin Bloxom, shares her emotional story and explains how digital evidence—especially text messages—was key to convicting her son’s killer. Pamela Foster, mother of Ashlynne Mike, delivers a powerful message advocating for the AMBER Alert in Indian Country Act, which is signed into law on April 13, 2018. A front-line story from Washington details a successful AMBER Alert that leads to a high-speed chase and the safe recovery of a non-custodial child within 45 minutes. Phil Keith, former AATTAP Administrator, is appointed Director of the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Police Services (COPS). Internationally, Peru and Lithuania launch national AMBER Alert systems, and Canada rolls out a new emergency alert system that sends messages to all cell phones nationwide.

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