State Police Host National AMBER Alert Awareness Day Child Safety Fair

On Tuesday, January 13, 2009 between 10:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., the Massachusetts State Police hosted its 2nd Annual National AMBER Alert Awareness Day Child Safety Fair at The Hall at Patriot Place in Foxborough, in observance of the 12th Annual National AMBER Alert Awareness Day. 

National AMBER Alert Day honors the memory of Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas on January 13, 1996.  The AMBER Alert system activates an urgent bulletin in the most serious child abduction cases in an attempt to galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of the child.  The AMBER Alert program has proven to represent the best hope for the safe recovery of abducted children and to date is responsible for or has assisted in the recovery of over 400 children nationwide.  In the six years since the AMBER Alert program's inception in Massachusetts, there have been 14 AMBER Alert activations seeking a total of 22 abducted children.  The program has ensured the safe recovery of all of these children.  The success of the AMBER Alert program sends a strong message that crime against our children is grossly unacceptable and that as a society, we will work together to track down perpetrators who prey on children and safely recover the children they intend to harm. 

Today's fair focused on Amber Alert awareness, abduction prevention education, and the preparation of digital child identification kits.  Troopers from Massachusetts, Connecticut and Rhode Island, along with Police Officers from the Foxboro Police Department and the MBTA Transit Police Department fingerprinted and photographed a total of 400 children and prepared digital child identification kits for parents to use in the event that their child goes missing or is abducted.  Digital child identification kits are a valuable asset for law enforcement in missing child and child abduction cases.  Law enforcement officials need photos and identifying information on missing and abducted children as soon as possible in order to activate an AMBER Alert and to aid in the criminal investigation.  The stress of a missing or abducted child situation can delay the collection of accurate information and current photos from parents and guardians.  Digital child identification kits can be handed over to the first responding law enforcement officer, who will immediately be armed with all the necessary descriptive information to activate an AMBER Alert.

New England Patriots Cheerleaders and "Pat Patriot" the New England Patriots' mascot, were on hand to meet the children.  Lauren Westman of Sharon had an identification kit made for her 3-month-old son Nathan because "the hospital where I gave birth did not take any foot or fingerprints of Nathan when he was born, and I wanted to ensure that I had  some means to positively identify him." Christine MacLaughlin of North Attleboro had identification kits prepared for her three children: 5-year-old Jack, 23-month-old Leah, and one-month-old Sarah.  Christine said that she came to the fair today because, "having a child abducted is every mom's biggest fear, so I wanted to be able to provide as much information as possible to the police so precious moments aren't lost if the unthinkable happens."

In addition to the child identification kits, the fair also focused on AMBER Alert awareness and abduction prevention education. Massachusetts AMBER Alert Coordinator, Trooper Nicole Morrell, was at The Hall at Patriot Place distributing information to parents on abduction prevention and urging participants to sign up for wireless AMBER Alerts, stating that "Subscribing for wireless AMBER Alerts is one of the best ways for the public to show their support for the AMBER Alert program and to  ensure that they always have the most current information available in the event of an AMBER Alert activation."  For more information on how to subscribe for wireless AMBER Alerts, please see www.wirelessamberalerts.org. 

The fair also served as the kickoff for the 2009 Amber Alert Poster Contest.  The United States Department of Justice sponsors this annual poster contest that challenges fifth grade students to develop posters that represent America's united goal of bringing missing children home safely.  The winning poster from each state will be displayed at the National Missing Children's Day Ceremony held in May.  The National winner will travel to Washington D.C., along with his/her parents and teacher, to receive an award and participate in the National Missing Children's Day Ceremony. For more information on this year's poster contest, please see http://ojjdp.ncjrs.gov/programs/postercontest.