The Amber Alert bill has been introduced for next year’s legislature. Bob Priddy has talked with one of the sponsors. It’s the coordinated system to alert the public that someone has been kidnapped and the kidnapper might still be in the area. Senator Chuck Gross of St. Charles says information, quickly relayed to the public, is the key to finding kidnap victims and this law authorizes the department of public safety to set up the program…and get state money to establish it. The Department of Public Safety would set up Amber Alert regions. Gross says there’s not usually much reason for an alert involving a kidnapping in one region to involve authorities and citizens in another region. Gross says the program will contain guidelines that require quick notification of authorities after an abduction and safeguards to keep false reports from being filed.
