The Ohio AMBER Alert Steering Committee announced that the State of Ohio is observing National AMBER Alert Awareness Day Sunday. This day is set aside to honor the memory of Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas and the establishment of the AMBER Alert Program.

Since the start of the AMBER alert, more than 595 children nationwide have been successfully recovered.

The following is the criteria to ensure AMBER Alerts are only used during witnessed or confirmed abductions of children:

• 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.

When an AMBER alert is issued, the State utilizes a variety of distribution methods including the Emergency Alert System, electronic billboards, lottery terminals, media, Twitter, Facebook, and secondary distribution efforts through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

AMBER Alerts are issued by a law enforcement agency and should be used for situations meeting the established criteria. For other missing child emergencies, the Ohio AMBER Alert Steering Committee created the Endangered Missing Child Alert.

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