The AMBER Alert Program, created after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, and transportation agencies. Here in Nevada, an alert is initiated by a local law enforcement agency.  The agency activates an urgent bulletin -- sent out through the Emergency Alert System and aired over local radio, television and cable.  The alert then expands through message road signs, the internet, (AMBER Alert websites and the new technology of social media.)

Here in Nevada, AMBER Alert is not overused.  We have a strict criteria for activation.  And some of the toughest laws in the country if someone lies to local law enforcement resulting in a false activation.  To do so is a felony.  With so few alerts in a year -- Nevadan's know then when there is an activation, the situation is serious.  At stake is the life of an abducted child,  

A description of the abducted child and the suspected abductor is broadcast to thousands of media listeners and viewers. The public becomes the eyes and ears of law enforcement.   The state AMBER Alert website becomes the center of updated information that is being released by local law enforcement.

The AMBER Alert program is coordinated on a national level by the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information about the National AMBER Alert Initiative, please visit www.amberalert.gov.

Nationwide there are 119 AMBER Alert Plans, including 28 regional, 38 local, and statewide plans in all 50 states, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.  The Nevada Plan is actually three sub-plans, divided regionally between southern Nevada, northern Nevada and eastern Nevada.  The Nevada Plan is one of a handful of state plans that is backed-up by statute, including broadcaster amnesty and the establishment of a Review Committee.

Bob Fisher, NBA President and CEO continues as Nevada's State Coordinator and Chairman of the Review Committee.