The AMBER Alert Program is a cooperative effort between local law enforcement agencies and Washington’s local broadcast stations and cable television providers. The AMBER Alert Program provides law enforcement agencies access to broadcast stations and cable systems during the critical minutes following the initial report of a child abduction.

The AMBER Alert Program Plan is a locally based, voluntary enhancement of the local Emergency Alert System (EAS). It is a provision of the Local Area Emergency Communications Committee (LAECC) EAS Plan. Any local law enforcement organization desiring use of the EAS to broadcast abducted child alerts in its community must work with local broadcast stations, cable operators, authorized EAS origination centers and the LAECC to design a Local AMBER Alert Program Plan that complies with the guidelines set forth in this Tab 26 of the Washington Emergency Alert System State Plan. Local AMBER Alert Program Plans must be approved by the Local Area Emergency Communications Committee and the State Emergency Communications Committee prior to any activation of an AMBER ALERT that uses the Emergency Alert System.

Realizing that the procedures, jurisdictional boundaries, and resources of local law enforcement organizations vary greatly, the following guidelines are provided by the SECC for the development of a Local AMBER Alert Program Plan.

1. Activation points should be a 24-hours facility.
2. development of procedures should mirror and complement existing EAS activation procedures.
3. An AMBER Alert should be treated like all other EAS events.
4. Radio and television stations, cable operators and local officials should work together to ensure activations are disseminated to the public. The actual broadcast of an AMBER Alert is voluntary and the misuse of this privilege might be cause for broadcasters and cable operators to cease to participate in disseminating these messages.
5. The FCC-approved event code for an abducted child alert is "CAE."
6. An AMBER Alert Program is a great opportunity for law enforcement to get involved in EAS with their dispatch centers or activation points.
7. Consider having a designated person representing the AMBER Alert Program on your Local Area Emergency Communications Committee.
8. In the local areas, use the Local Relay Network (LRN) for this type alert as you would for all alerts. In the event that an Alert covering a wider area than the Local Relay Network serves is required, the Washington State Division of Emergency Management may originate the Alert upon request.
9. In order not to seriously hamper the effectiveness of an AMBER Alert, reject efforts to affiliate with a particular station or law enforcement entity. All stations and law enforcement entities should participate equally.

In order to activate the AMBER Alert Program, five (5) criteria must be met:

1. The child must be 15 years or younger, or with a proven mental or physical disability, and police must believe that the child has been abducted (unwillingly taken from his or her environment without permission from the child’s parent or guardian).
2. The police must believe the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death.
3. There must be enough descriptive information available to believe that its dissemination to the public could help locate the child, suspect and/or the suspect’s vehicle.
4. The activation must be recommended by a law enforcement agency in the local jurisdiction.
5. NON-QUALIFYING USES FOR AMBER ALERT PROGRAM: Based on the above criteria, the following situations WOULD NOT QUALIFY for AMBER Alert activation: Missing child believed to have run away from home; missing child taken by a non-custodial relative in a child custody case; lost child; and, police search for criminal suspects (murder suspect, bank robber, etc.).

1. The plan is voluntary between participating broadcasters, cable operators and law enforcement agencies.
2. The report of a child abduction is time sensitive. An AMBER Alert activation will be most effective if broadcast as soon as possible after the child abduction. The establishment of lengthy authorization call-down lists or a procedure that requires obtaining activation approval from a particular law enforcement officer are discouraged, as they could be counter productive.
3. A Local AMBER Alert Program Plan should establish the basic guidelines to be followed for the activation of an AMBER Alert.
4. A community should consider including in its Local AMBER Alert Program Plan a provision outlining procedures for sending to, and receiving from, a neighboring community or a bordering state, in the event that a child abduction threatens to, or does, cross a boundary.

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