Wireless AMBER Alerts
Last week, as Canada’s Public Safety Minister, I was pleased to have the opportunity to recognize the Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association, the RCMP and AMBER Alert agencies across the country for the launch of the new wireless AMBER Alert program which is designed to assist in the safe return of missing children.
AMBER Alert’s are issued upon the suspected abduction of a child via widespread media broadcasts and solicit the public’s help in the safe and swift return of the child. When the AMBER Alert is initiated, radio and television stations immediately interrupt programming to broadcast information about the abducted child. With this new initiative, customers of most Canadian wireless service providers will be allowed to opt-in to receive free AMBER Alerts as text messages through their cell phones.
This invaluable service will provide the most up-to-date information about a missing child and hopefully put thousands of more people on the look out for children who need our help. This initiative has the potential to make responses even faster and help to safeguard children in the first hours following their abduction, which is critical in many cases.
Every year thousands of children go missing and that pain is something no parent should ever have to face. The RCMP’s National Missing Children’s Service has done tremendous work to protect and educate Canadian children and I would like to extend my sincere gratitude for the hard work and dedication of all its members. Through this new collaboration, the RCMP, Canada’s wireless telecommunications and other law enforcement agencies have taken an important step to make the AMBER Alert program more visible and accessible to Canadians. This means we can all play a much more active role in helping to keep our children safe.
The completely free wireless AMBER Alert program is available to cell phone users in Manitoba. Subscribing is easy to do online at www.wirelessamber.ca or directly from your wireless device.
