# 4031 - 2006 39c Amber Alert

 

Issue Date: May 25, 2006
City: Arlington, TX
Quantity: 80,000,000
Printed by: Avery Dennison
Printing method: Photogravure
Perforations: Die cut 10 ¾
Color: Multicolored

 

AMBER stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. The AMBER plan was created in 1997 after nine-year-old Amber Hagerman was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered.

 

The shocked community contacted radio stations in the Dallas area. They asked that the stations broadcast special “alerts” to help prevent such tragedies.

 

Other states and communities soon set up their own AMBER plans. The local effort grew into a seamless system of AMBER Alert programs across the country.

 

An AMBER Alert goes out once law enforcement determines that there is sufficient information on the abducted child, captor, or captor’s vehicle, and that the child, 17 years old or younger, is at risk of serious injury or death. AMBER Alerts then interrupt regular programming on radio and television and appear on electronic highway signs.

 

AMBER Alerts serve as deterrents to those who prey on children. Some perpetrators release the child after hearing or seeing the AMBER Alert. All 50 states now have AMBER Alert plans, and alerts can be issued across state lines. AMBER Alert programs have helped save the lives of over 200 children nationwide.