Child abductions are one of the scariest things that can happen to a child and a parent in America. The potential of losing a child to a stranger has led developers to create the AMBER Alert, which does its best job to alert residents of a local abduction. AMBER Alerts has teamed up with Facebook and Apple to make sure that people receive the Amber Alerts. However, that may not be enough to help people track down the captor.
However, location app Waze may have an option that could help locate the captor. The app will now show location-specific AMBER alerts to alert drivers to the abduction. Waze users will receive an update with the child's name and age, as well as a link for more info. However, these alerts will only appear in cars that have stopped for more than 10 seconds. Once the driver starts moving again, the alert will disappear. An alert for a particular person won't appear more than once a week.
When Waze announced this partnership on their blog, the company said that it's goal "has always been about sharing information for the common good. In this spirit we hope the addition of AMBER alerts to Waze will make a significant contribution to safety and awareness for children and parents across communities everywhere."
AMBER Alerts were invented in 1996 by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and have been distributed via a number of mediums, including updates via smartphones, radio broadcasts, billboards and television. According to the NCMEC, AMBER Alerts have saved over 700 children from abductors.
Waze, which uses user-based crowdsourcing to track traffic conditions and road changes, is a perfect partner for displaying AMBER Alerts. Not only could the app share info about the victims, but it could also provide users with the ability to (potentially) mark a captor's location for the police if desired.
