FYI: Technology To Widen Reach Of Amber Alerts

Anyone aware of this work and is there a 
place for CAP? (I think that there is!)

 

Carl

 

Technology To Widen Reach Of Amber Alerts 

By Ellen 
Simon, Associated Press 

A new technology debuting in 12 
states will significantly extend Amber alerts, reaching cell phones, E-mail, and 
handheld computers, and could also be used to transmit weather and terrorism 
alerts. 

"It might not be the all-alert system, but the backbone is going to be 
there," said Chris Warner, president of E2C in Scottsdale, Ariz., which led the 
system's development. "Homeland Security could take it right over." 

Police officers in Arizona and Washington, starting Monday, were able to send 
Amber alerts--notifications of a child abduction--from a highly encrypted system 
in their cars then update them with photos and more detailed descriptions, 
Warner said. Ten other states are expected to launch the expanded alerts this 
summer. 

"The goal of this is to make it so pervasive, no one will be stupid enough to 
take a child," said Warner. 

The system will use a simple broadcast technology that takes the information 
into a Web portal and reconfigures it for different types of broadcast. A state 
department of transportation, for instance, might receive one format for its 
road signs and another for its information number. 

Using the new system, people with cell phones can sign up for Amber alerts in 
with county or state authorities. The text of an alert can be shot immediately 
to local TV news programs' Web sites, with automatic updates. 

"What we've done is create a fairly simple publishing and broadcasting tool," 
said Stuart McKee, who worked on the system when he was chief information 
officer for Washington state and is now the U.S. national technology officer for 
Microsoft Corp. 

The system also represents a next generation of public warning. 

Many state emergency managers have clamored for a system that would instantly 
dispatch disaster information, including evacuation maps, on cell phones, the 
Internet, and handheld devices. 

Gov. Brad Henry of Oklahoma has said he hopes the technology could eventually 
be used to warn residents about severe weather, said Phil Bacharach, a state 
spokesman. 

The idea came about after McKee saw Warner give a presentation on another 
information-sharing network he had developed, Earth911, an Internet 
clearinghouse with local information about recycling different types of trash. 

State agencies and companies including Hewlett-Packard Co., Intel Corp., and 
Symantec Corp. worked together for 18 months to develop the system. Symantec 
said in May it is providing the external security monitoring of the host site 
and backup locations. The companies donated a total of $4 million in development 
time, Warner said. 

The system will help police in part because they can spend much of the 24 
hours after an Amber alert is issued answering phone calls from people looking 
for more information, McKee said. 

The 10 other states set to join the initiative: Connecticut, Hawaii, 
Louisiana, Maine, Missouri, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey, Oklahoma, and Oregon. 
Also Monday, Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour said his state also would soon join 
the mobile alert program. 

Amber alerts were created after the 1997 kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old 
Amber Hagerman, who was abducted while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. 

OGC: Helping the world to communicate geographically...

 

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