ICMEC – AMBER Advocate

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) and Clearview AI conducted an operation in Ecuador this past spring that resulted in locating and positively identifying 110 previously unknown child sexual abuse victims. The operation, held in Ecuador and hosted by ICMEC, used Clearview AI’s facial recognition technology as a main resource. Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Peru, and the Dominican Republic were among the countries that worked together on hundreds of cold cases involving previously unknown victims of online child sexual exploitation and abuse.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) is now using a global platform that combines artificial intelligence (AI) and digital advertising to locate missing and abducted children. The GMCNgine™ uses geo-targeting and dynamic ad technology to get missing children alerts to the right communities quickly. The system also uses AI to scan millions of images on the web to locate pictures that resemble missing children. “The GMCNgine™ sparks global change in missing child investigations,” said Maura Harty, President and Chief Executive Officer for ICMEC. The tool will be used in 29 countries.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) continues to work with countries around the world to make sure AMBER Alerts work and missing and abducted children come home safely. In 2015, ICMEC released the Model Missing Child Framework, which outlines 12 key criteria countries should consider when developing a national strategy/response for missing children. The framework assists countries with building strong, well-rounded national responses, and to facilitate more efficient investigations, management and resolution of missing children cases.

ICMEC and AMBER Alert Europe co-authored and published the Rapid Emergency Child Alert System Framework in 2016. This year ICMEC released Photo Distribution Framework, which offers a strategy for photo distribution to stakeholders, media and the public in the search for a missing child. The document also clarifies the differences between a photo distribution strategy and an AMBER Alert system. AMBER Alert Europe has also created "Understanding and Managing Risk in the Context of Missing Persons," an extensive review of the difficulty of determining risk and different elements to consider in a missing person case.

The island country of Jamaica held an international conference to coordinate efforts between countries to recover missing and abducted children. The conference was held May 2015 during Missing Children Awareness Week.

Jamaica has a child abduction alert called the “Ananda Alert” and has increased efforts to work with countries in Latin America and the Caribbean to make sure missing and abducted children return home safely.

Katia Dantas, Policy Director for the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children in Latin America, and Caribbean, was the keynote speaker at the event which was organized by “Hear the Children’s Cry.” The event included a meeting with key stakeholders, a press conference, and additional media interviews.

The meetings also included information about good international practices and technical assistance that can be used with the Ananda Alert System. Participants included representatives from the Office of Children’s Registry, law enforcement agencies, Child Development Agency, Ministry of Education, Sandals Foundation, National Parenting Support Commission, National Association of Social Workers, and other organizations.

In November 2015, the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children welcomed Hear the Children’s Cry to the Global Missing Children Network as its newest member and the first Caribbean country.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children hosted a missing children investigation symposium for all Central American countries. The law enforcement training was held in conjunction with Interpol on November 18-20, 2013, in El Salvador.

Participants learned how to better collaborate with stakeholders across borders. It was done in collaboration with Interpol.

A similar training took place in Buenos Aires on December 3-6, 2013. This symposium was done with the help of Interpol Latin America and included law enforcement representatives across South America.

The International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children (ICMEC) hosted an international conference in Brasilia, Brazil, to address the 8 million children who go missing each year. Participants from 14 countries attended the Global Missing Children's Network (GMCN) conference on February 9 to share best practices in dealing with the global problem of missing children.

“The problem of missing children touches every nation. Yet, most countries lack basic systems to respond,” said Ernie Allen, former President and CEO of the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children. “The meeting in Brazil is historic and represents the beginning of a global effort to build effective systems in every country.”

ICMEC created GMCN in 1998 to share best practices, information, and strategies on missing children. Nineteen countries are members: Albania, Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Greece, Italy, Ireland, Mexico, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Romania, Spain, South Africa, South Korea, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

After expanding to every state in the United States, the AMBER Alert Program is becoming a global movement as more countries adopt the child abduction alert plan. The 2009 National AMBER Alert Symposium included international partners from Canada, Mexico, and the European Union.

Caroline Humer, the Senior Program Manager for the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, provided a dateline of countries that have initiated AMBER Alert programs: Canada and the United Kingdom in 2003, Queensland, Australia, in 2005, France in 2006, Greece in 2007, the Netherlands in 2008, and Portugal and Baja California, Mexico, in 2009.

Humer said the Czech Republic, Ireland, Italy, Malaysia, Poland and Switzerland are now developing AMBER Alert plans. Some countries have made changes to the U.S. program including allowing non-government agencies to issue alerts, using different criteria and alerting methods and limiting the amount of information given to the public about the suspect.

Ontario, Canada modified the AMBER Alert criteria to clarify what information is needed before issuing an alert. Ontario law enforcement officers now must “believe” an abduction has taken place rather than being “certain.” The criteria were also relaxed on how much information was needed about the victim, suspect and vehicle.

A representative from INTERPOL suggested creating a “Train the Trainer” program so that they can take the training back to their countries and make their own needed adaptations.

The Southern Border Initiative is still moving forward to expand the AMBER Alert program in Mexico. Cecilia Duquela-Fuentes, Program Manager for the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, noted that 381 U.S. children have been recovered in Mexico. “The goal is not to just recover U.S. children,” said Duquela-Fuentes. “The AMBER Alert program can help Mexican officials recover their children as well.”

Law enforcement officials in California and Baja California are now meeting monthly so they can collaborate on child abduction and other cases.

Common ground was found and differences were discovered at the latest European conference on child abduction alerts, which was held May 19 in Prague, Czech Republic, and featured presentations and participants from 12 countries.

Caroline Humer, Program Manager for the International Centre for Missing & Exploited Children, was one of the presenters and she was impressed with what was accomplished. “The conference gave many European countries which are still establishing an alert system the opportunity to listen and learn from countries with existing programs,” said Humer. “Many great ideas were exchanged, and many realized the importance of using all technology available to reach as many people as possible.”

Even though European child abduction alert plans are based on the U.S. AMBER Alert Plan, Humer learned some notable differences in some countries: France can only launch an alert when an eye witness can confirm it was an abduction; France does not show the abductor's photo to the public because of possible innocence; and the Netherlands and Greece do not include abduction in their criteria but use the wording “immediate danger” or “life threatening.”

European countries are also facing some of the same issues that American states dealt with while setting up their AMBER Alert plans, such as data sharing (the Schengen Information System is a police database for 25 European countries but more promotion is needed so countries can share information during a cross border alert), data protection (the Czech Republic is working to protect law enforcement data before the country launches its child abduction alert plan), privacy (France is setting up secondary distribution of alerts through the Internet and cell phones but is trying to decide how to protect the victim's privacy after a child has been found), and cancellation (France only considers the alert to be in effect for the first three hours and does not send an automatic notice that an alert has been cancelled).

“The European countries are still struggling to share and cooperate between each other,” added Humer. “They need to build a stronger national database and cross-country relationships to help prevent abductions and protect children. Establishing a common toll-free number 116 000 to report missing children is a beginning and it is operating in 10 European Union countries at the moment.”

The conference included presentations from France, Netherlands, United Kingdom, Greece and the U.S. Participants also came from Czech Republic, Portugal, Spain, Cyprus, Switzerland, Italy and Poland.