Amber Alert plans for Vegas may be expedited

Adrienne Packer

Wednesday, Aug. 21, 2002 | 11:16 a.m.

Because of a recent flurry of abductions across the country, Clark County Commissioner Erin Kenny on Tuesday asked to expedite plans to implement an Amber Alert system in the Las Vegas Valley.

Amber Alert is a system that allows law enforcement to inform media outlets of child abductions. Radio and television stations issue emergency messages asking the public to help search for suspects or suspect vehicles.

The system has been credited with saving the lives of two abducted California teens last month.

It also played a role in the recovery of a 10-year-old girl from Riverside, Calif., who was reported missing Tuesday morning. The girl was found later Tuesday near Hawthorne with a family acquaintance.

Nevada does not have an official Amber Alert system, but the state attorney general's office and the Nevada Highway Patrol put out an alert to media outlets via e-mail, informed law enforcement agencies and put up highway signs along U.S. 395, the route authorities believed the girl's kidnapper was using.

"The basics of the Amber Alert is a cooperation between broadcasters and law enforcement," said Stephanie Parker, crime prevention coordinator for the attorney general's office.

The attorney general's office recently announced it will work with a task force composed of all Nevada law enforcement agencies and the Nevada Broadcasters Association to help create such a system.

Law enforcement and broadcasters are increasingly using the Emergency Alert System, designed to inform the public of severe weather conditions, to alert the public of a missing child, Tom Sargent, spokesman for the attorney general's office, said.

Kenny, however, said she wants to take the Amber Alert system to the highest level.

"We need to bring all our resources to bear," Kenny said. "We need to give (authorities) more tools to get the bad guys and get the children safely back to their families."

The sentiment was echoed by Metro Police officials, who said the program's success in California could be mirrored in Southern Nevada.

"We've seen the impact it's had in California," Metro spokesman Lt. Vincent Cannito said. "The more people we have looking, the better."

An alert system called the Krystal Child Abduction Alert Program was implemented in the Reno area in April 2001 and has been activated twice since its inception.

Based on the Krystal CAAP program, a similar statewide program would prove useful in locating lost children, Parker said.

Kenny asked that commissioners explore putting messages on existing electronic signs posted on Desert Inn Road, the county's primary east-west arterial on which 50,000 vehicles travel each day. Kenny hopes to have similar electronic signs posted on the Las Vegas Beltway, traveled by as many as 93,000 vehicles a day.

Assembly Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, also has requested a bill draft to be considered by the next Legislature to put the system into place on state highways, such as Interstate 15 and U.S. 95.

The signs are a crucial part of the system, Parker said, allowing drivers to be on the lookout while driving.

"In this day and age, everyone has cell phones," Parker said. "This way, if someone is driving, they can just utilize their cell phone."

Kenny's proposal also includes message boards at McCarran International Airport -- the sixth busiest airport in the country. Kenny also pitched an e-mail network in which the county would not only post details of an abduction on its website, but also inform its 7,700 employees.

"If it could save one child that would be enough," Parker said.

Kenny said she intends to have some form of Amber Alert in place by mid-October.

Sun reporter

Stephen Curran contributed to this story.