The Illinois AMBER Alert Program

The AMBER Alert Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry, to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child.  AMBER Alerts are a tool for law enforcement to use during a child abduction investigation.  The AMBER Alert is not the entire missing child investigation.

AMBER Alerts are broadcast through radio, television, road signs and all available technology referred to as the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program. These broadcasts let law enforcement use the eyes and ears of the public to help quickly locate an abducted child.

"Seventy-four percent of children who are kidnapped and later found murdered are killed within the first three hours after being taken..."
- University of Washington Study