The Dutch national police are using a new crossmedia alert system for urgent missing children and child abductions — AMBER Alert Nederland.
With this joint initiative of software company Netpresenter and the Netherlands Police Agency (KLPD), the whole of the Netherlands can be immediately alerted when a child goes missing or is abducted, by means of pop-up messages on PCs, digital signage, e-mail, text messages, instant messenger and RSS newsfeeds.
The goal of the new system is to make use of the general public’s eyes and ears in urgent missing children cases, to help trace the child more quickly.
AMBER Alert gives the Dutch police the tools to instantly alert the whole of the Netherlands in case of an urgent abduction or disappearance of a child. The broad range of media involved makes it easy for any Dutch citizen, organization or company to help find missing children.
AMBER Alerts will only be issued for urgent missing children cases. The KLPD decide whether an AMBER Alert will be issued by assessing whether a case meets the criteria. These criteria include that the child has to be under 18-years-old and that there has to be direct endangerment to the child’s life or a fear for grave injury.
Expectations are that an AMBER Alert will be issued in the Netherlands between five and 10 times a year. The police are fully responsible for the content of all AMBER Alerts.
