AMBER Alert system passes a Utah test

Utah's AMBER Alert system underwent its first of what will be twice-yearly tests Friday.

The Salt Lake County Sheriff's Office and the Utah Department of Public Safety issued an alert for a missing young girl. The missing girl used for the Friday test was Maggie Simpson, daughter of Homer and Marge and sister of Bart and Lisa.

Within minutes the alert was broadcast on radio, television, electronic freeway signs, cell phones and pagers.

The idea to test the AMBER Alert twice each year was sparked by last month's national AMBER Alert conference. The system will now be checked every March 25, which is National Missing Children's Day, and Sept. 19, the day the body of 3-year-old Rachael Runyan was found.

Runyan was kidnapped from a Sunset park in 1982. Her body was found 24 days later bound and gagged.

Rachael's mother, Elaine Runyan-Simmons, said it's an honor to have the AMBER Alert tested every year on that day.

"It's a day set aside to honor Rachael," she said. "It's a bittersweet day. But we can't just sit back and be sad all the time. I'm pleased Rachael is being honored and remembered in a positive manner."

Also observing Friday's test was Ed Smart, who sits on the state AMBER Alert Advisory Board. Smart said time is critical when a child is abducted.

"Minutes and hours make all the difference," he said, noting that when his daughter Elizabeth was kidnapped it took about four hours for the old Rachael Alert system to get the message out.

Forty-four percent of children who are kidnapped and murdered die within the first hour of their abduction, according to statistics by the U.S. Justice Department. Seventy-four percent are killed within the first three hours and 99 percent are dead after the first day.

The biggest difference between now and then is training.

"The bottom line is it comes down to training," Smart said. "With all the technology there is, if law enforcement doesn't know how to use it all the work will go for naught."

The advisory panel will meet at a later date to review Friday's test and see whether anything can be improved.

"I think it was a great success," was Smart's initial overview of the test.

Friday's AMBER Alert test was issued at 9:19 a.m. By 9:22 a.m. all law enforcement agencies had been notified. By 9:27, radio and television stations were broadcasting the alert. By 9:31 a.m., most pagers and cell phones were transmitting messages telling of the alert. The scenario was over by 9:37 a.m.

An estimated 2,000 cell phones and pagers in Utah are now programmed to receive AMBER Alert messages, according to the Department of Public Safety.

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E-mail: preavy@desnews.com