In 2010, she said a 5-year-old girl was kidnapped by a man in Kagman.
The victim managed to escape, but the abduction of two sisters from a school bus stop in As Teo last May 25 has yet to be solved, Santos said.
She has pre-filed a resolution that will “encourage” Congressman Gregorio Kilili Camacho Sablan to include the CNMI in “America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, or Amber, Alert Program.”
Santos, Ind.-Rota, said the program will help increase and improve law enforcement response to missing, endangered and abducted children.
It will also “increase the recovery rate of abducted children; create greater community capacity in understanding broader issues related to exploitation and abuse of children; and enhance public participation in the recovery of missing, endangered and abducted children,” Santos said.
The Amber Alert System began in Dallas-Fort Worth in 1996 when broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children.
The acronym Amber was created as a legacy to 9-year-old Amber Hagerman who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas. She was brutally murdered.
Santos said the progress in developing and implementing Amber plans throughout the nation was not significant at the end of 2001 with only four states having statewide Amber plans.
In 2002, she added, the first ever White House Conference on Missing, Exploited, and Runaway Children, Amber Alert became nationally focused.
On April 30, 2003, President Bush signed into law the Protect Act, which comprehensively strengthened law enforcement’s ability to prevent, investigate, prosecute and punish violent crimes committed against children.
The Act codified the national coordination of state and local Amber Alert programs.
