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By DEBBIE HUMMEL
Associated Press Writer
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) -- The quest to get as many people looking for a missing child as soon as possible has Utah allowing Amber Alerts to go public in a big way.
The state of Utah on Friday began allowing businesses and citizens who want to receive the alerts through cell phones, pagers, e-mail or other text messaging devices to sign up on the state's Bureau of Criminal Identification Web site. State officials say the Utah program is likely the first in the nation to allow law enforcement officials and the public to get the alerts at the same time.
Anyone in the nation can sign up for Utah's alerts.
"We were looking at better ways to notify law enforcement officers and came up with a plan to make the alerts available to every single Utahn," said BCI director Nannette Rolfe.
Previous Amber Alerts involved authorities writing out information, then faxing that document to a television station that served as the area's emergency broadcaster. That station would then broadcast the alert and send the information to other news media and participating agencies.
Delays in Utah's system prompted officials to find ways to spread the word faster, Rolfe said.
In Utah's best-known child abduction case, the alert -- then known in Utah as a Rachael Alert -- went out seven hours after Elizabeth Smart was reported missing.
Now, when officers call for an Amber Alert the information will be sent electronically to the Utah Criminal Justice Information System and then immediately to all Utah law enforcement agencies, news media, electronic highway signs and anyone signed up to receive the notices.
"What's so awesome is the immediacy of it," said Utah Attorney General Mark Shurtleff. "At the same moment that the law enforcement agency sends it out it goes immediately to everybody who signs up."
Alerts will only go out if a missing child case meets certain criteria, Shurtleff said. Receiving Amber Alerts on one's cell phone or pager will be rare, he said.
"Hopefully it will even be a deterrent. If they know that if they take a child that it could be within minutes that they've got 100,000 Utahns looking for them," Shurtleff said.
Businesses already are signing up.
On Monday, Qwest Communications announced that the company will notify all of their employees, particularly those in service vehicles in the field, of the alerts through company cell phones and paging systems. Other businesses are volunteering to put the alerts on their electronic signs and billboards.
Shurtleff hopes Utah's program inspires other states. In May, President Bush signed national Amber Alert legislation into law.
The alert is named for Amber Hagerman, who was abducted in Arlington, Texas, and later was found murdered.
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On the Net:
Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification: http://www.bci.utah.gov
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