OnStar Helps to Locate Missing Children
Published Sep 10th 2007, 2:40pm by Jody DeVere in Featured Articles
GM's pioneer and industry leader for in vehicle safety, security, and
communication services takes another step to improve efforts with the
National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
OnStar
recently announced that its partnership with the National Center for
Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) will be expanded to provide
geographically targeted AMBER Alert messages to OnStar subscribers. In
addition to this technological advancement, OnStar will contribute
$300,000 to NCMEC to support Team Adam, a dedicated group of retired
law enforcement officials with expertise in missing children cases.
Starting
this month, OnStar will integrate AMBER Alert data into its call
center's geographical mapping system so that the Alerts are immediately
available to OnStar advisors when a subscriber calls in from an
affected area. If the subscriber is in the area of an AMBER Alert, the
OnStar advisor will notify them of the situation and ask the subscriber
if they would like additional information to help identify the abducted
child. With this advancement, OnStar's advisor team can become more
proactive in helping to make subscribers aware of AMBER Alerts in their
specific area.
"When a child is abducted, every second counts to
increase the likelihood of a safe return," said OnStar President Chet
Huber. "Integrating geographical targeting into our technology further
reinforces OnStar's ongoing commitment to improve our capabilities to
keep families - and in this case, children -- safe and secure."
"Rapid
response is vital in abduction cases, and the widespread use of the
AMBER Alert network makes it the nation's most powerful tool for
bringing abducted children home," said Regina B. Schofield, Assistant
Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs and the National
AMBER Alert coordinator. "I applaud the efforts of OnStar and NCMEC to
alert the public and raise awareness of AMBER Alerts."
In
addition to this enhancement, OnStar will contribute a total of
$300,000 to support the efforts of Team Adam over the next three years.
This group of consultants, who have related investigative experience
and have received specialized training in missing and abducted children
cases, is deployed for rapid on-site response. They provide support in
numerous high profile cases, often providing local law enforcement with
critical investigative and technical assistance needed to address the
crisis. OnStar's contribution funds critical emergency supply and
equipment needs, urgent state-of-the-art tools, and short-term
specialized support for the most difficult and challenging cases.
Team
Adam has been deployed 287 times in 43 states for a total of 332
missing children; out of which 307 have been safely recovered. In
addition to assisting law enforcement, Team Adam consultants also
provide an added service by ensuring that victim families receive the
appropriate help they need to cope during and after a crisis. Team Adam
was named after Adam Walsh, the abducted and murdered son of NCMEC
co-founders, Reve and John Walsh. John is also widely known for his
role as host of the television program "America's Most Wanted." Team
Adam receives its funding through private donations and a grant from
the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention.
"It is important to keep in mind that just one lead can result in
finding a child," said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC.
"OnStar's advanced technology will give millions of citizens the power
to help reunite families, and its support of Team Adam ensures that
families of missing children receive the assistance that they
desperately need."
General
Motors' OnStar began its partnership with NCMEC in April 2004. Since
then, OnStar subscribers have reported emergency information related to
an AMBER Alert or a lost child by pressing the red OnStar emergency
button in their vehicles. Immediately, the subscribers are connected
with OnStar emergency services advisors who expedite the calls to
emergency dispatchers.
Each month, OnStar receives about 9,600
emergency services calls, which includes 6,000 Good Samaritan calls for
events such as medical emergencies, crashes involving other motorists
and calls about AMBER Alerts.
For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com. For more information about the national AMBER Alert program, please visit www.amberalert.gov. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com.
Tags
abducted children, amber alerts, americas missing broadcast emergency response, general motors gm, general motors onstar, missing kids, national amber alert program, national center for missing, onstar, president bush, team adam, wireless amber alerts Recent Posts
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