After reviewing the history and achievements of the AMBER (America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert system- in remembrance of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl abducted and murdered in 1996 – this report presents information and data on AMBER Alerts issued from January 1, 2020, through December 31, 2020, and received by the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children from the 50 states, the District of Columbia, Navajo Nation, Puerto Rico, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
When a law enforcement agency is notified of a child abduction, it must first determine whether the case meets the AMBER Alert criteria. The recommended guidelines for this decision have been developed by the U.S. Justice Department. An AMBER Alert may involve one or more children and is issued on either a state/territory, regional, or local level. The features of an Amber Alert implementation are outlined in this report. From January 1, 2020, to December 31, 2020, 200 AMBER Alerts were issued. A total of 196 cases resulted in a recovery, 46 of which were recovered as a direct result of an AMBER Alert being issued. As of February 23, 2021, when statistics for this report were finalized, 4 children remained actively missing and 10 children were found deceased. A total of 35 categories of data cover Amber Alert case characteristics.