SALT LAKE CITY - The state on Monday activated a new program to help find missing people who may be in danger.

The Endangered Person Advisory is an alternative to the Amber Alert, which is a plan to quickly notify public agencies, the media and the public if a child is missing and believed to be in danger.

The Endangered Person Advisory can be used to try to find people who have disappeared, from an elderly person with Alzheimer's disease to a 14-year-old girl with questionable correspondence on her computer, the state attorney general's office said.

"We could have used something like this," Jody Hawkins, the mother of Brennan Hawkins, 11, who was lost in the mountains without food or water for four days, said in a statement.

"We needed the public's help and we needed it immediately. The Endangered Person Advisory will be a real blessing for other parents searching for their children."

Before the Endangered Person Advisory is issued, a law enforcement officer must determine if the person is missing under suspicious circumstances or whether the person may be in danger. Also the officer must determine if there is information available that could help find the missing person and whether the circumstances of the disappearance fail to meet the criteria for an Amber Alert, which is issued for people under 18.

The Utah Bureau of Criminal Identification will be responsible for distributing the Endangered Person Advisory to law enforcement, the media, businesses, ports of entry and other places.

"The Amber Alert has been an extremely effective tool for bringing abducted children home," Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said in a statement. "With the addition of the Endangered Person Advisory, police officers have a simple, clear-cut plan for finding others who may be in danger."

Under the current Amber Alert system, newspapers, television and radio stations are told when a child is missing and believed to be in danger. Electronic highway signs also can flash information to drivers on major roads, with details such as a child's description or the description of a suspect's car.

Ernie Allen, who heads the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, said at least 213 lives have been saved as a result of the Amber broadcasts since the program started eight years ago.

The program was created in memory of Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 1996 in Arlington, Texas.



Copyright Brigham Young University 20 Sep 2005