Child Rescue Alert launched

Eight police forces and almost a hundred media organisations in the North West have joined together to launch a major child protection initiative.

From Monday, 2 April 2007, Child Rescue Alert (CRA) is available in Greater Manchester, Lancashire, Cumbria, Cheshire, Merseyside, North Wales, and the Isle of Man, with the full involvement and co-operation of British Transport Police.

It is based on a successful American system called "Amber Alert" which was developed following the abduction and murder of a nine-year-old Texan girl in 1996.

Child Rescue Alert will seek urgent help from the public to find an abducted child in truly exceptional circumstances - where it is feared the child will be seriously harmed or killed.

A Child Rescue Alert will only be activated when the following four criteria are met:

· The missing child is apparently under 18 years old
· There is a reasonable belief that the child has been kidnapped or abducted
· A senior police officer (of at least superintendent rank) feels the child is in imminent danger of serious harm or death; and
· There is sufficient information available to enable the public to help find the child.

Working closely with broadcast media outlets across the region, police will issue regular bulletins - interrupting networked programming if necessary - asking the public to be their eyes and ears and report sightings of the child.

A special telephone number will be published and call-takers will be brought in to ensure all appropriate information is acted upon swiftly. All police forces in England and Wales are in the process of implementing Child Rescue Alert, and the North West region has been working for many months to ensure a uniformed approach.

Assistant Chief Constable Ian Seabridge from Greater Manchester Police said: "The Child Rescue Alert system would only be activated in very extreme circumstances but could prove to be the difference between life and death for the missing child.

"No matter how many police resources we put into finding a child, having thousands of members of the public searching for a missing child is an invaluable resource.

"The safety of the child is always our priority and we realise, like us, that the public are keen to do everything possible to help a child in danger.

"Activating a Child Rescue Alert allows us to get a message out to the public quickly and maximise our chances of finding the child and returning them to safety as quickly as possible.

"The media have already been extremely co-operative with this proposal and, while we would hope we would never have a situation that would make it necessary to activate an alert, it is reassuring to know that we have this resource available to us if we need it."

Date article online: 02/04/2007