Four County has partnered with the NC Amber Alert program to help locate missing children.
The Amber Alert program is designed to safely recover missing children who are in danger of serious injury or death. When an Amber Alert is dispatched by law enforcement, electric cooperative personnel will then relay the alert instantly to personnel in the field via electronic messaging.
The addition of such a wide geographic distribution of personnel, often in out-of-the-way areas, should prove a major asset to the state's Amber Alert system. Time is precious during abduction. A recent U.S. Department of Justice report determined that in 40 percent of 115 juvenile abductions studied, the child was murdered usually within 24 hours of abduction. However, a study by the Washington state Attorney General's Office indicated that in 75 percent of child abduction/murder cases studied, death occurred within the first three hours of kidnapping.
The North Carolina Amber Alert System was first activated in June 2002 and resulted in a Franklin County infant being returned unharmed from a baby sitter who abducted the child and transported it to another county.
Inclusion in the Amber Alert program is an example of Four County's commitment to its communities.