The AMBER Alert System began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed up with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children.

AMBER stands for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response and was created as a legacy to 9-year old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and then brutally murdered. 

Modeled after the Texas program, the New York State AMBER Alert Plan is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement, broadcasters and others to immediately involve the public, especially motorists, in the search for an abducted child.