Nebraska Lottery Part Of Amber Alert System
October 1, 2002--The Nebraska Lottery has joined the AMBER Alert response network in an effort assist law enforcement agencies in child abduction cases. AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. Because time is critical in abduction cases, Nebraska Lottery retailers and players will be notified of AMBER Alerts through our statewide terminal network. In the event of an AMBER Alert, the Nebraska Lottery will send an "immediate" message to all (1,200) Nebraska Lottery retailers. The special message containing information about the child abduction will be sent every half hour for the first three hours. Nebraska Lottery retailers receiving this message must print the message in order to clear their terminals for normal operation. The message can then be posted to the attention of customers. A special posting board, provided by the Nebraska Lottery, will allow retailers to display the printed message in a prominent place. To help call attention to the urgent situation, "AMBER ALERT" will flash on the starlet electronic message sign located with Nebraska Lottery terminals. In Nebraska, an alert will begin at the local level with a law enforcement agency responding to a child abduction that meets the AMBER Plan criteria. That agency will contact the Nebraska State Patrol, which will confirm that the criteria are met and deliver the alert to Nebraska Educational Telecommunications (NET). NET will broadcast the information and deliver it to broadcasters across the state through the Emergency Alert System (EAS). There are 15 statewide systems and 46 total AMBER Alert systems in place nationwide. The systems are named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped and killed in 1996. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children reports that since 1996 the system has been responsible for the recovery of 26 abducted children. For additional information click here to visit the Nebraska State Patrolwebsite.
Published on 10/01/2003