The State of Texas is joining the nation in observing National
AMBER Alert Awareness Day today. AMBER stands for "America's
Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response," and was named for
9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered in
Arlington, Texas, in 1996. Shortly after Amber Hagerman's death,
law enforcement and media representatives in the Dallas/Fort
Worth area created the first AMBER Alert program, serving as a
model plan nationwide for alerting the public regarding abducted
children. Currently, every state in the U.S. has an AMBER Alert
Plan, in addition to several countries around the world. January
13 marks the 17-year anniversary of Amber Hagerman's abduction,
which the U.S. Department of Justice has designated as National
AMBER Alert Awareness Day. The Texas AMBER Alert Program was
established by Gov. Rick Perry in August of 2002, complementing
existing local AMBER Alert programs. DPS manages the statewide
program and provides law enforcement a mechanism for rapid
notification of the med