WASHINGTON, Oct. 2 (UPI) -- President Bush on Wednesday announced that his administration would take steps to help expand the AMBER Alert child abduction notification system, which currently operates in about a dozen states and has assisted in the recovery of 32 kidnapped children.
"We see the dangers to our children in the cases of abduction, many of which are known to us all," the president said. "Each year, tens of thousands of children are abducted by non-family members, often in connection with a crime.
"And while the overwhelming majority of these children are returned from abductions, too many are not. One is too many, particularly for the mom or dad who suffers deeply."
Bush made his comments as he hosted the White House Conference on Missing, Exploited and Runaway Children at the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center in Washington. The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children sponsored the conference in conjunction with the Justice Department's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention.
The administration opposes making the highly successful AMBER system a federally controlled national initiative, saying it prefers the states to individually manage their own operations. But legislation is making its way through Congress that would help enhance and coordinate the emergency alert plan.
Amber Alerts began in Arlington, Texas, after the 1996 abduction and murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman. The system is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies and broadcasters that delivers an alert to the community via television, radio and highway message boards in the event a child is kidnapped.
Bush announced that he would establish a coordinator within the Justice Department who will serve as a nationwide point of contact to help state and local officials develop their AMBER plans. He also said the Justice and Transportation Departments would provide $10 million for upgrades to the emergency alert system and to develop training and education programs in its use.
Bush called the conference "the beginning of a refocused effort at the federal level to help save people's lives." He said that the "kidnapping of a child is every parent's worst nightmare" and that "too many have suffered."
The summer of 2002 was known for the numerous high-profile kidnappings and murders of children around the country.
The parents of 12-year-old Elizabeth Smart, a Utah resident, sat in the audience. Smart was kidnapped from the bedroom of her Salt Lake City home in June and has never been found. Danielle van Dam was found murdered in February in California after being taken from her home. And Samantha Runnion was also taken from in front of her Stanton, Calif., home and found dead a day later on a road some 50 miles away.
Bob Flores, administrator of the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, called the AMBER Plan a successful, inexpensive program that could easily be overused.
He told United Press International that it would be reserved for incidents where a child is taken and a license plate number and descriptions of the youngster or kidnapper can be broadcast first to bordering states and then eventually across the country.
Some 600 lawmakers, child advocates, business leaders and parents of missing or abducted children participated in the daylong summit that explored the risks to America's children in domestic and international abductions, pornography trade and other forms of exploitation.
The White House estimated that more than 58,000 U.S. children are abducted by strangers each year. Family members seeking to interfere with parental custodial or visitation rights kidnap more than 200,000 children. The Justice Department reported that 450,700 children run away and another 438,200 children are reported lost, injured or missing each year.
But senior administration officials admit it is tough to gauge exactly how many children are missing or runaways because reporting from state to state is inconsistent and inaccurate.
The president also said the Justice Department would continue to target so-called cyber-predators who solicit one in five children between ages 10 and 17 for sex.
"We're vigorously prosecuting those who prey on our children. We need to send a clear message: If you prey on our children, there will be serious, severe consequences," Bush said.
"Earlier this year, in Operation Candyman, the FBI dismantled a major child-pornography ring and they made more than a hundred arrests."
Attorney General John Ashcroft told the conference attendees that the FBI would work to improve the nation's law enforcement community's use of the National Crime Information Center to ensure faster federal response to child abduction cases.
"We're back to the point that the interval of delay is a very serious threat to the safety of our children. When a child is abducted, every second is critical," Ashcroft said. "We cannot afford to lose time in sharing information and deploying resources."
Ashcroft also said he was reassigning three FBI investigative analysts to work full time at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, which lacks enough resources to handle the increased volume of complaints. The analysts will review leads to determine which cases demand aggressive FBI action, he said.
