PROTECT Act - What Happened Next . . .

In many instances AMBER Alerts have led to the quick rescue of abducted children. At the time of PROTECT's signing (April 30, 2003) forty-one states had established AMBER Alert programs and about forty-nine local and regional programs existed. These numbers were up from sixteen state and thirty-two local and regional programs in August 2002.

Regional plans are plans that cover a larger area than just one city such as the King County AMBER Alert Plan that covers the greater metropolitan Seattle, Washington, area. According to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, by June 4, 2004, all states except Hawaii had established statewide plans (Hawaii had local plans in both Honolulu and Maui County). Seventeen regional and thirty-two local plans were in operation.

Attorney General John Ashcroft had appointed Deborah J. Daniels, assistant attorney general for the Office of Justice programs, as the first national AMBER Alert Coordinator six months before PROTECT was signed into law. In 2003 and 2004 she was in the process of studying all AMBER plans across the country and coordinating their efforts nationwide. Daniels and her staff developed minimum standards for issuing alerts; developed federal, state, and local partnerships; evaluated improving technologies and their compatibility (ability to work together) with different systems; and developed programs to raise public awareness about abductions.

National advisory member groups contributing to the coordinated AMBER effort included, in addition to the U.S. Department of Justice and Department of Transportation, the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, broadcasters nationwide, and law enforcement agencies across the country.