New online Amber Alert

Using the Web will only get the word about an abducted child out faster and to more people, "including ordinary citizens who can receive text messages on their cellphones," the New York Times reports. The new Net-based Amber Alert system is being tested in 13 states this summer. The Times cites figures from the National Center for Missing & Ecploited Children showing that 250-300 Amber Alerts are issued nationwide each year (the alerts were named in memory of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996). The way it works is, a local police officer enters a description of the kidnapping, "including information like location and license plate numbers, and photos of the victim," into the secure Web site. "The alert then goes out to other police departments, state agencies and broadcasters, and to cellphone and pager users who have signed up to receive them." The new system does even more than blanket an area's media with info; it calculates the abductor's location and targets media and communications devices in that area, according to that timing.