AMBER Alert helps in search for missing kids

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TORONTO, Ont. — Truckers on Ontario highways have a new tool to help them play a role in searches for missing children.

AMBER Alert, introduced this week by the provincial government and the OPP, will broadcast descriptions of missing children on COMPASS, the Ontario Ministry of Transportation’s network of electronic highway message signs.

The AMBER Alert program will also use radio, television and cable TV to immediately broadcast descriptions of kidnap victims, their abductors and suspect vehicles when police believe the child is in danger.

Says Bob Runciman, Ontario’s minister of public safety and security, “By using the COMPASS signs, we will be able to get the message to the driving public quickly and efficiently. This is another important tool the government is giving police services to help them protect all residents of Ontario.”

The original AMBER Alert program was established in 1996, in Arlington, Texas after the kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman. To date, AMBER Alert has helped police find 27 missing children in the U.S.

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