52-34.3 - Activation of Amber Alert Program upon an incident of child abduction.
§ 52-34.3. Activation of Amber Alert Program upon an incident of childabduction.
A. Upon receipt of a notice of a child abduction from a law-enforcementagency, the Virginia State Police shall confirm the accuracy of theinformation and provide assistance in the implementation of the Amber AlertProgram as the investigation dictates.
B. Amber Alerts may be local, regional, or statewide. The initial decision tomake a local or regional Amber Alert shall be at the discretion of the localor regional law-enforcement officials. Prior to making a local or regionalAmber Alert, the local or regional law-enforcement officials shall conferwith the Virginia State Police and provide information regarding the abductedchild to the Virginia State Police. The initial decision to make a statewideAmber Alert shall be at the discretion of the Virginia State Police. TheMissing Children Information Clearinghouse operated by the Virginia StatePolice shall serve as a central repository for information related to anabduction.
C. In those situations where appropriate, the Virginia State Police shallsend the Amber Alert to Virginia's emergency alert system. Participatingmedia are encouraged to issue the alert at designated intervals as specifiedby the Amber Alert Program.
D. In those situations where appropriate and an existing system is available,the Virginia State Police shall contact the operator of the existingautomatic dialing-announcing device system to target residents in thegeographic location where the abducted child was most recently seen. Forpurposes of this section, "automatic dialing-announcing device system"means a device that (i) selects and dials telephone numbers; and (ii) workingalone or in conjunction with other equipment, disseminates a prerecorded orsynthesized voice message to the telephone number called.
E. The Amber Alert shall include such information as the law-enforcementagency deems appropriate that will assist in the safe recovery of theabducted child.
F. The Amber Alert shall be cancelled under the terms of the Amber Agreement.Any local law-enforcement agency that locates a child who is the subject ofan alert shall notify the Virginia State Police immediately that the childhas been located.
(2003, cc. 83, 86; 2004, c. 270; 2007, c. 130.)