POST AN AMBER ALERT TICKER ON YOUR WEBSITE TO SAVE MISSING CHILDREN

The AMBER Alert Plan serves as an early-warning system to track missing children.

Every minute is a matter of life or death for an abducted child, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.  If a kidnapper intends to murder an abducted child, rescuers have very little time to search. Missing children are usually murdered less than three hours after they are abducted.

In response, the AMBER Alert system warns the public when a missing child is in danger.  The system was inspired by community outcry following the 1996 death of 9-year-old AMBER Hagerman.

On a January afternoon, AMBER was riding her bicycle in her Arlington, Texas neighborhood.  Minutes later, a neighbor heard the child scream as a man ripped AMBER from her bicycle and threw her into his vehicle.  Despite exhaustive search efforts to locate the missing child, AMBER's body was found several days later at the bottom of a creek bed.  AMBER's killer was never identified.

Determined to prevent similar tragedies in the future, members of AMBER's Texas community prompted the local media to broadcast alerts of any reported child abduction.

This local outrage gave rise to the national AMBER Alert plan. Nationwide AMBER Alerts broadcast descriptions of missing children and their assailants within minutes of a reported abduction.

Before the AMBER Alert Plan was enacted, local law enforcement agencies did not have a cohesive plan to alert the public about a missing child.  Those critical three hours often passed before the community even knew a child was missing.

Today, AMBER Alerts are transmitted through the Emergency Alert System as soon as law enforcement reports an endangered missing child.

So far, the AMBER Alert plan has recovered over 240 missing children.  AMBER Alerts bring home more children as more alerts are displayed. However, radio and television broadcasts are not able to reach every home and every workplace.  Valuable time is lost whenever an AMBER Alert goes unseen.

You can help locate more of these missing children by posting a free, up-to-the-minute AMBER Alert Ticker on your website.  The tickers come in two lengths:

• This is a real-time version of the standard, long AMBER Alert ticker:

• This is a real-time version of the optional, shorter AMBER Alert ticker:

CodeAMBER.org was launched in 2002 in an effort to bring AMBER Alerts into cyberspace.  Now, everyone who has a website is able to display an AMBER Alert.

With a few easy clicks of your mouse, you can help locate missing children:

• First, follow this link to get your free AMBER Alert Ticker. The easy HTML code at this site will allow you to run the ticker.

  If you prefer, you may copy the short ticker instead of the standard, longer version.  There is also an AMBER Alert Ticker for Canada on this same page.

  The Code AMBER website provides a link explaining some basic copy and paste instructions, if you need the extra help.

• If you do not have a website, you can also run a desktop version of the AMBER Alert ticker.
• Your ticker is in real-time and will be updated automatically whenever there is a new AMBER Alert.  Make sure to check your AMBER Alert Ticker every day.
• Email these directions to friends who are also considered about missing children.  Encourage these friends to display the AMBER Alert Ticker on their websites as well.