Collage of photos depicting Amber Hagerman, her bicycle, the place where she was abducted, where her body was found, and her case detectives.

A Timeline

The Minister of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia, Aleksandar Vulin, and the Chairman of the AMBER Alert Europe Foundation, Frank Hoen, sign the Memorandum of Understanding in Belgrade, February 24, 2022.

The Republic of Serbia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on February 24, 2022, with AMBER Alert Europe to help the country improve efforts to find missing and abducted children. AMBER Alert Europe now has 43 members. “You can never be sure enough you have done everything you could to save your youngest and dearest; the initiative of AMBER Alert is precious, valuable and important,” said Aleksander Vulin, Serbia Minister of the Interior.

Law enforcement officials in Rome have signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the AMBER Alert Europe Foundation to formalize efforts to issue alerts and find missing children. The Polizia di Stato agreed to have officers receive more training so they can cooperate and assist law enforcement efforts to find missing children throughout Europe.

Slovenia invited police experts from 26 other European countries to discuss best practices to find missing children and elderly people. The international conference was held January 9, 2021, with the cooperation of the Police Expert Network and AMBER Alert Europe.

AMBER Alert Europe initiated an awareness campaign called “Friend or Monster?” to educate the public about children being sexually abused or harmed by someone they know, love, or trust. The campaign began on November 18, 2021: the European Day on the Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation and Sexual Abuse. Officials decided on the theme because the pandemic has led to more children being closed in with their abusers and have fewer chances to seek help.

AMBER Alert Europe is joining the European Parliament Intergroup on Children’s Rights to put children’s rights at the top of the EU agenda. The organizations created a manifesto to protect children’s rights. “No child must be left behind,” said Frank Hoen, AMBER Alert Europe founder and chairman. “With AMBER Alert Europe, the Intergroup will speak with a louder voice to protect the rights of the most vulnerable, in particular missing children.”

An international conference in Slovenia offered tips and best practices for finding missing persons in August 2021. The Slovenian police, Police Expert Network on Missing Persons and AMBER Alert Europe organized the conference that included participants from 26 countries. Slovenian Minister of Interior Aleš Hojs said searching and investigating missing person cases is a top priority for Slovenia and the EU—especially for vulnerable populations like children and the elderly.

The International Cold Case Analysis Project is teaming up with the Police Expert Network on Missing Persons (PEN-MP) of AMBER Alert Europe. The collaboration will also include Locate International, the Police Academy of Lower Saxony, and several British and Australian Universities. The project enables young police officers and students to establish a close link between theory and practice in cold cases. The goal is to help families across Europe find closure after the disappearance of a loved one. The project has already help bring in leads about a 1991 murder in Germany.

AMBER Alert Europe welcomed the Centre for Missing and Exploited Children Croatia (CNZD) in February 2021, making it the 41st official organization from 25 countries to aid in the search for missing children in Europe. The CZND is a leading organization in Croatia devoted to preventing the disappearance of children and providing support to families in crisis situations.

AMBER Alert Europe has joined ActiveFence to scan millions of online chats to identify online threats to protect children from sexual abuse, human trafficking, and other endangerment. The system proactively monitors numerous online platforms to identify, track, and stop online threats.

Law enforcement authorities in the Netherlands plan to replace AMBER Alert and Missing Child Alert notifications in July with a separate citizen warning system called Burgernet. Minister of Justice and Security Ferd Grapperhaus said the change will create a more coherent, centralized service for warnings about criminal suspects as well as missing adults and children.

AMBER Alert Europe President and Founder Frank Hoen believes the switch is a mistake. “When the term ‘AMBER Alert’ is mentioned people know that a missing child is in danger,” he said. “We are gravely worried that with the disappearance of the AMBER Alert, the collaboration between the public and the police will also vanish.”

AMBER Alert Netherlands estimates 95 percent of the Dutch public knows about the purpose of the AMBER Alert. Since November 2008, the Netherlands issued 30 AMBER Alerts and 1,010 Missing Child Alerts. The missing children were found safe in 94% of cases, often with the assistance of the public.

AMBER Alert Europe is now partnering with the WePROTECT Global Alliance, an international organization working to stop child sexual abuse and exploitation. The partnership follows up AMBER Alert Europe’s 2020 #DontBeAnEasyCatch campaign, which warned children about online grooming. “Awareness of online child sexual abuse and exploitation is still lacking. With this partnership, we can strengthen the efforts to better protect children in Europe,” said Frank Hoen, Chairman and Founder, AMBER Alert Europe.

AMBER Alert Europe attracted 50 law enforcement professionals from 22 countries to a webinar entitled, “Save the Missing Person First, Solve the Crime Later.” The September 30, 2020, webinar discussed weighing priories between pursuing a prosecution and finding a missing person. A second webinar is planned in the upcoming months.

The Finnish National Police have officially joined AMBER Alert Europe’s Police Expert Network on Missing Persons (PEN-MP). Finland joins more than 70 police experts from 24 countries working on missing person cases. PEN-MP was established to bring law enforcement officers from different countries together to recover missing persons quicker and more effectively.

AMBER Alert Europe now has 38 official organizations representing 23 countries after welcoming four new organizations into the fold during the summer of 2020. The following are the newest members:

• Fundación ANAR is a non-profit that promotes children’s rights in Spain and Latin America. The organization has been managing the European hotline number for missing children in Spain since 2010. https://www.amberalert.eu/fundacion-anar/

• NGO Instituto de Apoio à Criança has been defending children’s rights since 1983. The nonprofit has been operating the missing children hotline for Portugal since 2004. https://www.amberalert.eu/iac/

• Child Rights Centre Albania is a non-governmental organization that was established in 1997 to improve children’s rights in Albania. https://www.amberalert.eu/crca/

• The Greek Safer Internet Center was launched in 2016 to promote internet safety for children. The organization teamed up with AMBER Alert Europe on the #DontBeAnEasyCatch prevention campaign. https://www.amberalert.eu/greek_safer_internet_center/

AMBER Alert Europe marked a number of important milestones for its goal of #ZeroMissingKids in its annual report for 2019. The highlights include:

• The organization’s Police Expert Network on Missing Persons (PEN-MP) was officially recognized by all member states of the European Union.

• PEN-MP appointed Damjan Miklič with the Slovenian Police Directorate as the new president representing the 60 police experts from 16 countries.

• The ‘Stay Safe With Simon’ campaign was launched to teach children how to protect themselves from being abducted.

AMBER Alert Europe also started partnerships with national police forces of Sweden, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Lithuania, as well as with missing persons organizations in the UK and Spain. Find the report here.

The southeastern European country of Bosnia-Herzegovina is now part of the continent’s child abduction alert program. The country is the 21st to join AMBER Alert Europe, which now has 34 participating organizations. “By joining we want to contribute to quickly and successfully solving missing children cases through cooperation with colleagues from other countries,” said Mirsad Vilić, Director for Coordination for Police Bodies of Bosnia and Herzegovina. The country is also joining the Police Expert Network on Missing Persons, a network that allows law enforcement to quickly consult with members in other countries on missing persons.

AMBER Alert Europe has partnered with a technology company for AMBER Alerts to be seen on 23,000 ATM screens across Europe, with the potential of being viewed by millions of users and others passing by. The concept began in the Netherlands with Euronet Worldwide in the summer of 2019. “This partnership will significantly increase the amount of exposure that missing children will receive,” said Frank Hoen, AMBER Alert Europe Chairman and Founder. “I am certain this will save children’s lives in the future.”

The Lithuanian National Police officially joined AMBER Alert Europe and will now issue alerts in child abduction cases. On October 10, 2019, Lithuania joined 21 countries with 33 organizations using the tools and methods of the AMBER Alert program. “(This) enables us to spread information about these cases all over Europe, while learning about the latest technologies in the search for missing persons. All of the above, will highly contribute to finding missing children,” said Irena Ambrasaite, Chief Specialist at the Lithuanian Criminal Police Bureau.

All members of the European Union (EU) are officially recognizing the Police Expert Network on Missing Persons (PEN-MP) as the first and only law enforcement network for AMBER Alerts. At a meeting on October 18, 2019, a body of the Council of the EU identified the group as the single point of contact for missing person specialists for 21 EU countries. “Through the network, police officers across Europe know exactly who they should (contact) in another country at 3 a.m.,” said Frank Hoen, AMBER Alert Europe Chairman.

More than 40 law enforcement officers from 16 countries gathered in Prague for the second European Expert Network on Missing Children Forum. The training held September 4-6, 2019, included real-life missing person cases to learn about the best practices for safely recovering missing and abducted children. “When a child goes missing and they need support from colleagues in another country, they will know exactly who to call at 3 a.m.,” said Frank Hoen, Chairman and Founder of AMBER Alert Europe. “This will highly contribute to saving more missing children, which of course is our ultimate goal.”

The United Kingdom Missing Persons Unit is now bringing information and investigation assistance to other European countries. The Missing Persons Unit is part of AMBER Alert Europe’s Police Expert Network (PEN-MP) and is now offering its national database to help find missing individuals and identify bodies without identification. UK officials are encouraging other law enforcement agencies to join the network.