An Amber alert (alternatively styled AMBER alert) or a child abduction emergency alert (SAME code: CAE) is a message distributed by a child abduction alert system to ask the public for help in finding abducted children. The system originated in the United States.
The Amber alert was created in reference to 9-year-old Amber Rene Hagerman, who was abducted in Arlington, Texas, on January 13, 1996, and found murdered four days later. Alternative regional alert names were once used; in Georgia, "Levi's Call" (in memory of Levi Frady); in Hawaii, "Maile Amber Alert" (in memory of Maile Gilbert); in Arkansas, "Morgan Nick Amber Alert" (in memory of Morgan Nick); in Utah, "Rachael Alert" (in memory of Rachael Runyan); and in Idaho, "Monkey's Law" (in memory of Michael “Monkey” Joseph Vaughan). Although the system was named for Hagerman, "AMBER" officially stands for "America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response", an example of a backronym.
