"Today is a new day for the AMBER Alert program which has been under public scrutiny for not protecting children that go willingly with adults who are at risk for being a victim of sexual assault.The House Bill 3385 was passed yesterday which allows Law Enforecment agency's to issue Amber Alerts for children believed to be in danger of sexual assault.
This bill also modified the criteria to allow alerts issued for a "child under 14 believed to be taken willingly, but without parental consent, by a person who is more than three years older than the child and is not a relative."
"The current criteria for issuance of an Amber Alert is sometimes too narrow," Eric Coleman who currently chairs the committee on County Affairs. "The state does not consider children in jeopardy of being sexually assaulted to be in danger."
In the United States alone, an estimated 800,000 children are reported missing, more than 2,000 children every day. An alarming pattern of that number, 58,000 are abducted by non-family members, for which the primary motivation is sexual.
76% are girls with the average age being over 11 years of age. In 80% of these cases, the initial contact between the victim and abductor is within 1/4 mile of the victim's last known location (Study of cases reported to law enforcement in 1997 by Attorney General of the State of Washington).
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