OHIO — Early Wednesday morning around 5:30 a.m., phones across Ohio lit up with a message of an Amber Alert on their phones — a 5-year-old boy, Darnell Taylor, went missing out of Columbus. 

Another Amber Alert was sent out slightly after midnight on Thursday in the Cleveland area for a 5-year-old named Dream Persons, who was eventually found safe. 

Throughout the past few years, Ohio has had a handful of Amber Alerts sent out. One that gained national attention was the case of the twin boys who went missing in Columbus in December 2022 when a mom who was Doordashing left them in the car for a few minutes to grab a food order.

Amber Alerts span all the way to 1996 and have been used ever since to help locate missing children who could potentially be in danger. 

The story behind Amber Alerts

In January of 1996, a 9-year-old named Amber Hagerman was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. 

Amber was last seen riding bikes with her brother in downtown Arlington, and after being gone for 8 minutes, she was abducted by an unknown person. Soon after, the emergency management program at the time and local media spread the message that she had been missing. She was found dead four days later, just a few miles from her home. The crime remains unsolved.

Her case inspired what is now called Amber Alerts, which also stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response. First it started organically, according to Walden University. In 1996, jurisdictions across the country established similar emergency management programs to notify the public that a child had been abducted.

By 2001, according to Walden University, just four states implemented statewide Amber Alert emergency preparedness plans. Then the next year, when the White House had a conference about missing children, the emergency system gained national focus. 

The Amber Alert program we know today came to fruition in 2002, when former President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act into law. The legislation provided the tools to help create a national Amber Alert program. Now, there are 82 Amber Alert programs across the nation. 

What is the criteria to issue an Amber Alert?

Under the guide of the U.S. Department of Justice, there are certain criteria that must be meant to send out an Amber Alert. They are:

  • Reasonable belief by law officials that there's been an abduction
  • Law enforcement has reason to believe the child is in danger of "serious bodily injury or death"
  • There's enough details about both the victim and the abduction to issue the alert 
  • The child is 17 years or younger
  • The child's name and other details have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system

How effective have Amber Alerts been?

According to the Amber Alert website, the program has helped to recover 1,186 children, and the wireless emergency alerts resulted in the rescue of 165 children. 

What to do if your child goes missing

If a child goes missing, immediately contact local law enforcement. If it's been reported, you can call the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children at 1–800–THE–LOST (1–800–843–5678). More information and resources can be found at http://www.missingkids.org/MissingChild.

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