| Message |
Contact: Beth Alberts
713.409.2720
For Immediate Release
Houston Regional Amber Alert System issues 100th Amber Alert
July 22, 2010: Today the Houston Regional Amber Alert System issued its 100th Amber Alert for missing three-month-old, Aeliyah Cook, who was abducted during the theft of a car. Fortunately, like 94% of the Amber Alerts issued in the Greater Houston Area, this alert was resolved quickly and the child is safe.
Since its inception on December 7, 2000, the Houston Regional Amber Alert (HRAA) System has been an important tool for successfully recovering endangered missing children. Astonishingly, this program is financially supported solely through donations to Texas Center for the Missing, the administering agency for HRAA. As funding for nonprofits becomes scarce we may have to ask ourselves if this service is critical enough to support in a more reliable and systematic manner through city or county budgets.
The small staff of Texas Center for the Missing (TCM) provides Amber Alert training and 24-7 issuance support to the 150+ law enforcement agencies in the 13-county Houston-Galveston Region. TCM CEO Beth Alberts, who serves as director of the Amber Alert, says “The Amber Alert is an effective tool for law enforcement officers to use to generate leads and tips from the community. Missing children recovered due to the Amber Alert are almost always located because a citizen has observed the vehicle or the suspect and reported it to police. This only occurs because an alert is issued and publicized in the media and placed on highway signs.”
It would be a shame for a large metropolitan area like the Houston region, which typically has 10,000 – 15,000 missing children reported each year, to lose its Amber Alert program because it could not raise the $25,000 that is needed to support it each year.
For more information on Texas Center for the Missing and HRAA go to www.thetexascenter.org or www.amberplan.net.
*Statistics: 100 Amber Alerts issued for 120 children resulting in 112 successful recoveries, 4 deceased and 4 still missing.
-30-
|
