Oregon’s AMBER Alert system has been expanded to distribute messages concerning child abductions via cell phones, lottery machines, personal computers and other wireless devices.
Gov. Ted Kulongoski announced he was “proud to be the first citizen of this state to sign up to receive AMBER Alerts,” at a press conference in Salem on Wednesday morning, encouraging the public to join him in order to “create a safer environment for our children.”
The AMBER Alert Web Portal will simultaneously send real-time updates through all forms of communication devices and, for the first time, link all 50 states into a partnership providing detailed information on an abducted child, right down to the nearest cross streets, according to the Oregon State Police. A consortium composed of states, law enforcement, the broadcast media and private corporations is fueling the Web portal.
The AMBER Alert, or America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response Alert, system began in 1996 when the tragic kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in Arlington, Texas, motivated her parents and community to work with Dallas radio stations in an effort to broadcast a special alert in the event of an abduction.
Today the system operates in all 50 states and has assisted in the recovery of more than 200 children.
When the system is activated, most children are located, said Judy Hayes, program coordinator for the Missing Children Clearinghouse. Since Oregon began utilizing the AMBER Alert system last July, there have been nine activations and all have led to successful recoveries, she said.
The previous system, which only utilized electronic highway billboards and radio and television broadcasts, could take up to three hours to distribute information. Those three hours are critical because in that short period of time, 74 percent of kidnapped children are killed, according to a press release from Walek & Associates, the firm handling the Web Portal Consortium.
“This is just the next step in an initiative to protect children,” Kulongoski spokeswoman Anna Richter Taylor said, adding the AMBER Alert Web Portal was already available to media and law enforcement, but now anyone can sign up.
Recently in Washington state, one child was recovered under the new system before the old system had time to kick in, Walek & Associates spokesman David Rosen said.
All Oregonians are encouraged to go to www.oregonamberalert.com and sign up to receive PC pop-ups as well as cell phone and pager text message alerts.
In addition, businesses with Oregon Lottery will receive AMBER Alert printouts from validation machines, which the retailers can post for customers to see.
“The more people who know, the better chance we have of rescuing the child,” Taylor said, adding that everyone who has a cell phone or computer should sign up.
Not only will the new Web portal provide live information and updates to anyone who signs up, but law enforcement, broadcast media, enhanced 9-1-1 call centers, electronic highway billboards, other states, border agencies, transit authorities and casinos will also have access, according to a press release from the Oregon State Police.
Taylor said because the funding is coming from non-profit organizations and corporate sponsorship, the system is free to the public.
Oregon is the fifth state to utilize the Web portal system, joining Washington, Idaho, Montana and Arizona. In the coming months, Alabama, Nevada, Oklahoma, Missouri and Rhode Island are scheduled to receive the program as well.

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