Observing National AMBER Alert Awareness Day

COLUMBUS, Ohio (WDTN) - January 13, 2013, is National AMBER Alert Awareness Day.

This is a day set aside to honor the memory of Amber Hagerman, of Arlington, Texas, and the establishment of the AMBER Alert Program.

More than 595 children nationwide have been successfully recovered as a result of the AMBER Alert Program.

To issue an AMBER Alert, the following criteria must be met:

• An abducted child must be under 18 years of age.
• The abduction poses a credible threat of immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death to a child.
• A law enforcement agency determines that the child is not a runaway and has not been abducted as a result of a child custody dispute, unless the dispute poses a credible threat of immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death to the child.
• There is sufficient descriptive information about the child, the abductor, and the circumstances surrounding the abduction to indicate that activation of the alert will help locate the child.

To inform you, Ohio uses methods including the Emergency Alert System, electronic billboards, lottery terminals, media partnerships, Twitter, Facebook, as well as secondary distribution efforts through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

AMBER Alerts can only be issued by a law enforcement agencies.

For more information on the Ohio AMBER Alert Program, please visit www.ohioamberplan.org .