Assembly passes bill on Amber Alert plan

Erin Neff

Wednesday, March 26, 2003 | 11:29 a.m.

CARSON CITY -- An Assembly committee unanimously passed a bill this morning that would create a statewide alert system to return abducted children.

Assembly Bill 322, sponsored by Speaker Richard Perkins, D-Henderson, cements in law a partnership between law enforcement and broadcasters to create a statewide system like those in other states called Amber Alert.

"The one statistic that brings this all home for me is that 74 percent of the children murdered by non-family members are killed within the first three hours of their abduction," Perkins testified this morning before the Assembly Judiciary Committee.

Perkins, a deputy police chief in Henderson, said the system will "dramatically increase the possibility that abducted children in Nevada will be returned to their families."

The Department of Justice reported 114,600 attempted abductions of children nationwide last year, Perkins said. With a majority of children sexually assaulted and killed with the first hours of the abduction, Perkins said instant information about the child is critical. Thirty-two children have been recovered as a result of alert systems nationwide.

"Time is the enemy in the search for a missing child," he added.

AB322 creates the statewide system, which is currently operating on the local level in several Nevada communities. It also creates a committee, appointed by the governor and Nevada Broadcasters Association, to help set up the system and monitor each use of the system.