Idaho joins online effort to save kids

BOISE – Idaho will participate in the Amber Alert Web Portal, which quickly informs police departments, citizens and the media to save abducted children, Gov. Dirk Kempthorne said.

“Time is of the essence when a child is abducted,” Kempthorne said Wednesday. “The Amber Alert Web Portal allows the Idaho State Police to instantly engage dozens of agencies and organizations, as well as the general public, giving us an edge that will help close the net on abductors, potentially saving young children from a horrible fate.”

According to statistics, 74 percent of the children who are killed by their abductors meet that fate within the first three hours, he said. Once information is entered into the system, it updates all the appropriate parties. That includes police, broadcasters, transportation authorities and any other group that can help.

“If a potential abductor knows that we will be looking for them when they take a child, we will have created a tremendously powerful deterrent to abductions,” said Dawn Peck, Idaho State Police Bureau of Criminal Identification manager. “By joining the consortium, Idaho is taking a great step forward in our quest to keep our children safe.”

“Now with all of our neighboring states on board and many others joining soon, the vision of a seamless, fully-functioning and powerful national Amber Alert system is coming to fruition,” Kempthorne said.