Information zone
Child Rescue Alert
Child Rescue Alert is an agreement between the police and media to harness the public's help in a co-ordinated and quick way if a child has been abducted.
A police force may issue a Child Rescue Alert if an incident fits certain criteria. These include that the child is apparently under the age of 17, and there is reasonable belief that they are in imminent and serious danger.
Thankfully, such incidents are extremely rare. However, Staffordshire Police has detailed plans in place to deal with them if necessary.
Child Rescue Alert formalises the way the media is asked for help to find a child as soon as possible - with the main aim of getting the child back safe and well. It involves local and national media broadcasting alert messages at regular intervals.
Staffordshire Police, West Midlands Police, West Mercia Constabulary and Warwickshire Police signed up to the scheme in May 2007. It was used for the first time in Staffordshire less than two months later to help trace a 13-year-old boy taken from the Tamworth area.
Details of an abducted child also appear on the National Missing Persons Helpline website.
The Child Rescue Alert scheme is based on Amber Alert in the USA, which was introduced in Texas in 1996 following the abduction and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman.
