U.S. Postal Service to Issue AMBER Alert Commemorative Stamp

The U.S. Postal Service will issue a commemorative stamp honoring the local broadcaster-initiated AMBER Alert Plan, a program dedicated to the rapid recovery of abducted children. AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alerts have been credited in the successful rescue of more than 230 abducted children nationwide.

Following the abduction and death of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman in 1996, a group of Texas broadcasters in the Dallas-Ft. Worth area voluntarily developed the AMBER Alert Plan as an innovative way to use broadcast airwaves to transmit emergency information when a law enforcement agency determines that a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger.

Broadcasters in other markets and other states soon adopted an AMBER Alert Plan similar to that started in Dallas Fort-Worth after the successful recovery of several children.

AMBER alerts distributed by regional broadcasters now aid law enforcement in finding abducted children across the country. The new postage stamp recognizing the importance of this partnership will feature an illustration of a mother and child embracing along with the words, "AMBER ALERT saves missing children."