Gossip spread online about the possible impact of the government shutdown on the national Amber Alert system, but the warning system stayed up and running.
The National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) posted an advisory on their website and facebook pages to squash that rumor.
“The distribution of AMBER Alerts has not been affected by the recent government shutdown,” the post said.
AmberAlert.gov, the government website that explains the Amber Alert program, reportedly went offline briefly, but the system actually used to help find abducted children – on the NCMEC SITE – remained operational with no lapse in service.
“There recently has been a lot of media attention regarding the government shutdown, specifically the Amber Alert website, amberalert.gov. This is an informational website; the Amber Alert Program has not been shut down. Although the federal level website for information purposes is not active, the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children continues to provide operational support for each Amber Alert Program in the nation. Nothing has changed,” said Robert Hoever, NCMEC’s Director of Special Programs – Missing Children Division, in a news release.
The Illinois Amber Alert and Iowa Amber Alert systems were also not impacted.
