Child alert plan in works

By Mike Gordon
Advertiser Staff Writer

A statewide child-abduction alert plan similar to the one credited with helping save the lives of two California girls is being drafted by the Honolulu Police Department and the state Attorney General's Missing Child Center-Hawai'i.

The system, which needs the approval of Honolulu Police Chief Lee Donohue before state officials can debate it, would use a network of overhead freeway signs and radio and TV broadcasts, said Honolulu Police Officer Joe Self of the Missing Persons Detail.

Like the so-called Amber networks operating in 12 states, the plan here would rely on tips from the public, Self said.

"It's something we can use to alert the public right away," Self said. "It's an opportunity to warn the public on the roadway, the eyes and the ears who are on the road. We can't be everywhere."

But state Department of Transportation Highway Administrator Glenn Yasui does not support the plan.

"It gets to be something like a pseudo-posse and I don't know if the state wants to get into that," Yasui said.

Federal laws restrict the use of the state's 12 overhead signs, which are spread over nearly 55 miles of freeway, Yasui said.

"There is no public service announcement stuff," he said. "This might be confusing to motorists and distracting and there might be liabilities involved."

The system in California was used for the first time Thursday. The names of the kidnapped girls were sent to law enforcement agencies and broadcast media outlets statewide.

Information about the car they were taken in was flashed on 316 freeway signs.

The California plan, like those in other states, is named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old girl kidnapped and murdered in Texas in 1996.

Amber programs are credited with recovering 17 children since 1997.

Carol Hee, coordinator of the Missing Child Center-Hawai'i, said the plan would cost almost nothing.

"It is just about getting everyone on board," she said. "In situations like this, the first three hours are the most critical. If you can get information out to the public and they can be on the lookout for vehicles, they can be the most important resource for law enforcement officials."

Hee has been working with police for the last four months to develop a plan. She said she initially saw this as a system that only used broadcast media.

But the freeway signs used in California have demonstrated their worth in just one day.

"After seeing that and seeing how useful it was, that should be something we do," Hee said. "It makes a lot of sense to me. Besides, not everyone is listening to the radio."

Self, a veteran of numerous missing persons cases, said it doesn't matter that Honolulu police have fewer abduction cases than their Mainland counterparts.

One case is all it takes to be a success. Or a failure.

"I think it is worth more than letting one life fall apart," he said. "If you save one person that's like winning the grand prize on a quiz show."

Reach Mike Gordon at mgordon@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8012.