This issue of the AMBER Advocate reviews activities of the 2021 National Missing Children’s Day on May 25th and reviews AMBER Alert cases and activities in various states and internationally.
Missing Children’s Day is celebrated in the United States and internationally. It is an annual remembrance that reminds everyone to join the fight to bring missing and abducted children home. On this year’s 38th annual National Missing Children’s Day, the U.S. Department of Justice recognized those who have made extraordinary efforts in protecting children from harm and bringing perpetrators of harm to children to justice. Activities in various cities on this day are summarized. A profiled AMBER Alert case in Missouri features a suspect in an armed child abduction case turning himself in to authorities after quick work by Missouri AMBER Alert partners. Lessons learned are reported. The section on “Faces of the AMBER Alert” profiles the work of Deborah Flory of the Maryland State Police, who is assigned to the Criminal Enforcement Division’s (CED) Child Recovery Unit as the AMBER Alert and Silver Alert Coordinator. Her assignment includes the AMBER Alert program. The Child Recovery Unit uses specialized computer skills and cell phone knowledge to track and locate critical missing and abducted children in Maryland. AMBER Alert international activities focus on events in the Netherlands, the Bahamas, Canada, and Great Britain. Brief statements on AMBER Alert activities in the United States pertain to Virginia’s new alert system for missing adults with autism; a TikTok video that offers new clues in a 2003 kidnapping of a Washington State girl; a phone scam that leads to a New Hampshire AMBER Alert for a child who was not abducted; California’s Mendocino County’s testing of an AMBER Alert system; and privacy advocates’ efforts to limit Massachusetts police from using license plate readers.