If there was a theme to the 2010 National AMBER Alert Symposium, it would be the Boy Scouts' motto, “Be prepared.”

Clay County, Florida, Sheriff's Captain David Senters put it this way: “The only type of case that has ever scared me is a child abduction. Having been through a child abduction, I'm even more scared. You must have a plan in place.”

The symposium held November 16-18 in Phoenix was an opportunity for AMBER Alert partners to consider if they have a plan in place or if they must improve their current plan. The symposium provided three days of discussions designed to replace fear with knowledge.

“We have come a long way, but we still have a way to go,” said AMBER Alert Training Program Director Phil Keith.

The 7-Year Review

The AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program staff shared a review of all U.S. and Canadian AMBER Alert Plans during the past 7 years to see how they have evolved.

The good news: name recognition for AMBER Alert is up, the activation criteria is more uniform, the methods for disseminating alerts have improved, and more plans use tools to identify proper activation procedures.

The review noted some other positive developments: more plans employ comprehensive child recovery strategies and automatic alert cancellations and better details about the frequency of alerts and out-of-state activations. In addition, more plans use Endangered Missing Advisories for cases that do not meet the AMBER Alert criteria.

The bad news? Most plans lack details in after-action reports; few plans reference phone banks, testing, scenarios, or tabletop exercises. Also, most plans have not been updated since 2007.

The lesson learned from this comprehensive review is there is no finish line; agencies need to constantly review their plans and make needed improvements to ensure they provide the best preparation possible.

During his keynote speech at the symposium, Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff quoted Benjamin Franklin, who once said, “When you finish changing, you are finished.”

“We need to change from ‘That is the way it has always been done’ to ‘That is the best way to save a child,’” said Shurtleff. “Take the smallest idea and run with it. Just one person is all it takes to turn a tragedy into a triumph.”

OJJDP Deputy Administrator Marilyn Roberts noted that the AMBER Alert Program has had many triumphs over the past seven years. “The AMBER Alert Program has significantly increased public awareness of child abduction cases and public participation has increased dramatically,” she said.

National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) President and CEO Ernie Allen also added that this is a time to celebrate what has been accomplished. “Few partnerships have had the impact of the AMBER Alert,” said Allen. “Individually, we can do little. Together, we can change the world.”

Technically Speaking

One constant change is technology. NCMEC Associate Director of Special Projects Bob Hoever discussed the way technology is changing AMBER Alert Programs. Some examples include Walgreens posting all AMBER Alerts on its electronic pharmacy signs, smart phones soon having applications for AMBER Alerts and missing child notifications, the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Service showing AMBER Alerts and endangered missing children notifications on its LCD screens, the Integrated Public Alert and Warning System and Commercial Mobile Alert System eventually changing the way all alerts are distributed, and the Emergency Alert System soon switching to the Common Alert Protocol (CAP) as its primary method of delivery.

Washington State Broadcasters Association President Mark Allen said CAP will make it possible for alerts to include audio, graphics, maps, and text. “In addition to the standard alert, messages will be sent to cell phones, Websites, billboards, and other alerting devices,” said Allen.

The launch date for CAP has been delayed, but, Allen said, broadcasters will eventually have to buy CAP decoders and encoders.

AMBER Alert Web Expanded and Enhanced

The AMBER Alert Extranet is also undergoing a complete makeover. The Extranet serves as a secure clearinghouse for authorized AMBER Alert partners in collaborating with one another. In 2011, the Extranet will become part of the secure sites on the Criminal Justice Collaboration Portal at www.thecjportal.org/amberalert. The portal will provide users with an expanded array of Web-based collaboration and information management tools that will enhance the Extranet's features.

“Users can collaborate with other AMBER Alert and child protection partners regarding issues relevant to their roles and responsibilities and access information regarding training and technical assistance,” said Distance Learning Coordinator Bonnie Davis.

AMBER Alert's sites on the portal will provide a wide array of training and technical assistance information for the public. Users with secure login credentials, such as AMBER Alert Coordinators, Missing Children Clearinghouse Managers, active Child Abduction Response Team (CART) Program Coordinators, and their ranking law enforcement officers, will also have access to a vast collection of secure collaboration tools, document libraries, and other resources not visible to the public. The site's security will ensure that users' information and documents are protected as they collaborate with their colleagues.

Distance Learning on the Portal

The portal will also be used to share distance learning courses. The website will include an area devoted to online course information, schedules, downloads, and links to registration.

Two courses are currently available: “Public Safety Telecommunications Best Practices for Missing and Abducted Children” and “Patrol First Response for Missing and Abducted Children.”

In the first 10 months of AMBER Alert's online learning programs, more than 2,100 law enforcement and public safety personnel successfully completed training. Registrations continue to pour in and 3 to 5 more programs are expected to be added this year, including a Spanish language AMBER Alert Basics course, blended learning opportunities for the CART program, and a new course for prosecutors to support their role in missing and abducted child investigations.

CART Has Wheels

The CART concept continues to gain momentum since it was introduced at the National AMBER Alert Symposium in 2006. A CART is made up of highly trained individuals who provide the expertise and resources needed when a child is missing or abducted. So far, more than 247 teams have attended training covering 43 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, the Bahamas, and Canada.

“AMBER Alerts and CART go hand-in-hand,” said lead CART Instructor Floy Turner. “Our short term goal is to have CARTs in all 50 states. Our long term goal is to have CARTs everywhere.”

Predatory Behavior

The symposium included some frank discussions about offenders who engage in commercial sexual exploitation of children. In a presentation on Predatory Behaviors, licensed psychologist Veronique N. Valliere said child predators manipulate victims to get what they want.

“When we are talking about compliant victims and compliant behavior, we are not talking about compliance,” said Valliere. “Compliance implies full knowledge. What we have to realize is that these offenders ruin the victim's ability to consent or comply.”

Valliere warned investigators and prosecutors that predators will also act nice, show remorse, and shift the blame on the victim to manipulate them. “The more the offender can blame the victim, the more likely it is that we are not going to take the case,” she said. “Nice is a behavior, not a character trait, it means nothing. The reality is that some of the nicest people do the worst things.”

Detective Cathy Delapaz has dealt with many predators while working for the Dallas Police Child Exploitation Squad. Her job is to stop human trafficking and child prostitution. She shared how pimps groom children to do what they want and never tell.

“Most of the victims of child prostitution could leave the lifestyle and contact police, but the grooming process prevents them from even considering that an option,” said Delapaz. “These cases are not going to walk in off the street; we have to be proactive.”

Family Roundtable Underlines Real Danger, Guides Others

Diena Thompson lit a candle at a vigil for missing and abducted children at the 2010 National AMBER Alert Symposium. A similar candlelight vigil was held for Thompson a year earlier at the symposium in Tampa after the heartbreaking news that her 8-year-old daughter Somer had been found in a Georgia landfill. Somer was walking home from school when a registered sex offender abducted and murdered her.

“It is high time for the predators to fear us rather than us and our children fearing them,” said Thompson. Since the tragedy, Thompson has joined the Surviving Parents Coalition and become a powerful voice for other parents of abducted children.

“My hope is together we can get these monsters off the street,” added Thompson. “Not one more child, not here, not anywhere.”

Thompson also joined 39 mothers, fathers, and survivors in child abduction cases who took part in the Family Roundtable discussions at the 2010 symposium. The family members shared their experiences and recommended guidelines they thought would help AMBER Alert partners during child abductions. Carol Ryan, a mother of an abducted child, shared those guidelines, including that being heard is important to healing and to solving a case, that families should be given a voice and an advocate to help them with law enforcement and the media, that law enforcement agencies should immediately investigate missing children reports rather than telling parents to call back the next day, that the worst case scenario should always be assumed when looking for a child, that runaway cases may not really involve runaways and should be investigated, that children from foster care or residential facilities get lost because cases are not reported or investigated properly, that the family should be kept informed and communicated with even when there is nothing new to say, and that the home should be left the way it was found after an investigation because it is the family's place of refuge and must be protected.

“Law enforcement plays a big part in defining the whole experience for the family,” concluded Ryan. “Remind the family that there are other victims and that what occurred was not their fault. Those affirmations are powerful and stay with the family for a long time.”

Crisis, What Crisis?

Since an AMBER Alert is by its very nature a crisis, AMBER Alert partners also received a crash course on crisis communications. Lessons shared on working with the media during an AMBER Alert included that press conferences should provide everything a reporter will need to tell a story, that the victim's family should have a voice and will help generate public interest, that traditional and new media should be used to reach as broad an audience as possible, that law enforcement should always be up front with the media since a break in trust can jeopardize future cases, and that officials should explain why certain information cannot be released during an investigation.

Clay County, Florida, Sheriff Rick Beseler said it was critical that a relationship with the media already existed when 8-year-old Somer Thompson was abducted and murdered. “The media is needed to relay critical information about the suspect and case,” said Beseler. “If a relationship does not exist, it will be difficult for law enforcement to disseminate information.”

The symposium ended with a challenge from Ron Laney, then OJJDP Associate Administrator and now Senior Policy Advisor to the Administrator, to be prepared and to share. “Be sure to take home what you have learned and share it with everyone.”

2010 AMBER Alert Award Winners

Marilyn Roberts, OJJDP Deputy Administrator, presented the 2010 AMBER Alert Awards to five outstanding individuals involved with the AMBER Alert Program.

Broadcast/Media Person of the Year

Illinois Broadcasters Association President Dennis Lyle helped develop a state AMBER Alert Program in 2001 and enlisted more than 500 broadcasters to make the plan work. Lyle promotes the state's “no budget” AMBER Alert Plan to enlist partners, to educate the public, and to create public service announcements.

Law Enforcement Leadership Award

New Mexico Department of Public Safety Public Information Officer Eric Garcia works tirelessly to educate law enforcement officers and broadcasters on AMBER Alert laws, regulations, and protocols. He developed a Missing/Endangered Alert to find children who may not meet the AMBER Alert criteria. He has also been a leading force to bring AMBER Alerts to bordering states in Mexico.

AMBER Alert Citizen Award

Mike Grant helped save a 2-year-old girl after an AMBER Alert was issued in Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont. The girl was abducted by her father, who had assaulted the victim's mother at knifepoint. Grant was hunting in the woods when he spotted the victim and suspect and convinced him to turn himself in.

Victor Perez responded to an AMBER Alert after an 8-year-old girl was abducted and forced into a truck in Fresno, California. Perez followed the suspect until he pushed the child out of the truck. The suspect was arrested 40 minutes later.

AMBER Alert Coordinator of the Year

Lt. Charles Fleeger, College Station, Texas Police Department.

CART Certification

Roberts also recognized the Child Abduction Response Teams (CART) that received national certification in 2010. Certification is achieved after the teams are determined to follow the standards and requirements of the Department of Justice. The Utah CART was certified June 1, 2010; the Georgia CART was certified September 1, 2010; the Southern Oregon CART was certified October 1, 2010; the York County, Pennsylvania CART was certified November 17, 2010; and the Kansas CART was certified November 17, 2010.

Special Award Presented to Outstanding Advocate for Children

Phil Keith, AMBER Alert Training & Technical Assistance Program Director, was surprised to receive a special award from OJJDP and NCMEC staff for his outstanding work as an advocate for missing, abducted and endangered children during the final minutes of the symposium. Ron Laney, Senior Policy Advisor to the Administrator, presented the award to Keith for his tireless efforts to train thousands of people and develop critical programs to save the lives of missing and abducted children.