#62, Alerts

When someone is in grave danger, law enforcement officials in North Carolina can request an emergency alert from the North Carolina Center for Missing Persons (NCCMP), a division of the Department of Public Safety. Officials designed these alerts to share information rapidly about a person who is missing, kidnapped, or poses a danger to law enforcement officers or the community at large.

Because these alerts are a plea for community assistance, the NCCMP requires detailed and relevant information. A vague alert is simply not useful.  Once the NCCMP approves the request, broadcasters interrupt regular programming to announce it, transportation officials post the information on emergency highway signs, the Wireless Emergency Alerts program distributes the news to cell phones, and the NC Education Lottery places the message on gaming terminals.

Each alert has a unique purpose. AMBER Alerts, an acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, is the most widely known. It is named in memory of Amber Hagerman, a Texas nine-year-old, who was kidnapped and murdered. After her death, broadcasters in her state partnered with local police departments to design an early warning system to aid in the search for abducted children. Versions of the resulting program soon spread to other states.

AMBER Alerts are used for children under 18 years of age who are believed to have been abducted by someone other than a parent. If an alert is issued for a child taken by a parent, authorities must believe the child is in danger of injury or death, not merely a pawn in a custody dispute. Likewise, children who run away from home or are missing voluntarily do not qualify for an alert.

The Ashanti Alert Act is named after Ashanti Billie, a woman killed by her abductor in 2017. Law enforcement officers request Ashanti alerts when adults are missing under circumstances that indicate their physical safety is in peril, perhaps from domestic violence, sexual assault, or human trafficking.

President Barack Obama signed Blue Alerts into law in 2015 after the murder of two New York City detectives while sitting in a patrol car. Prior to the attack, their killer posted threats on social media to the law enforcement community. Blue Alerts provide advance warning of credible threats, aid in the apprehension of violent criminals who killed or seriously injured an officer, and hinder an offender’s ability to flee the state.

North Carolina authorities no longer issue Silver Alerts. This reality surprises many people. In July 2023, the North Carolina Legislature replaced Silver Alerts with the Missing Endangered designation, but this change received little publicity.

Used in cases where a missing person had dementia or another cognitive impairment, Silver Alerts were effective. In fact, approximately 70% of people with dementia go missing at least once, and Silver Alerts have proven critical in many of the over 100,000 search and rescue missions conducted nationwide each year.

However, Silver Alerts applied only to people 50 years of age and older, and that limitation proved problematic. In recent years, my deputies also have searched for multiple people younger than 50 who went missing and were vulnerable to exploitation, physical vulnerability, or death. In these cases, we had no mechanism to notify the broader community quickly.  When officials removed the age restriction and renamed Silver Alerts to Missing Endangered Alerts, they vastly increased the number of adults who might benefit from this tool.

If you receive an alert, we need your help! AMBER, Ashanti, and Blue alerts all operate on the premise that someone may avoid a handful of law enforcement officers yet find it quite difficult to hide from thousands of people. Pay close attention to details in an alert. Watch for the missing person and keep an eye out for the suspect and vehicle described. Report any sightings immediately to 911. Do not engage directly with an abductor, but if feasible and safe, follow from a distance while reporting the person’s location and direction of travel.

With a Missing and Endangered alert, the dynamics are different. These situations generally involve a lost, scared, or vulnerable person. Though urgent, they rarely involve a perpetrator. Remain calm if you think you see the missing person. Call 911 and describe the situation and location. If you have a safe opportunity to interact, call the person by name, introduce yourself, and try to keep the person engaged until help arrives.

Above all, please do not ignore emergency alerts. We do not request them lightly, and the NCCMP considers them carefully. We appreciate your assistance.

###