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Morgan Nick Amber Alert System begins using electronic billboards Saturday, Jan 19, 2008 By John Lyon Arkansas News Bureau LITTLE ROCK - The Morgan Nick Amber Alert system has a new tool for alerting the public of missing or abducted children, officials announced Friday. The alert system now includes 24 electronic billboards alongside Arkansas roads and highways, Arkansas State Police Director Col. Winford Phillips said at a news conference at state police headquarters in Little Rock. Another 22 billboards will be erected in the next few months, Phillips said. Using wireless technology, state police can display photos of missing children and information such as ages and vehicle descriptions on signs across the state. A $400,000 federal grant has provided funding for the billboards, said Dan Flowers, director of the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department. "Seventy-four percent of children who lose their lives after an abduction do so during the first three hours," state Attorney General Dustin McDaniel said. "The faster we can get information to as many people as we can to try and bring that child home, the better off we all are." "If we bring one child home, then we've made a difference," said Colleen Nick, who campaigned for the creation of an alert system in Arkansas after her daughter, Morgan, then 6 years old, was abducted from an Alma ballpark in 1995. Morgan Nick has never been found. The Amber Alert system is named after Amber Hageman, a 9-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas, in 1995. More than 250 Arkansas radio and television stations currently participate in Arkansas' alert system. The public can sign up to receive alerts on wireless devices, such as telephones and PDAs, at www.arkansas.gov. |
