New System Helps State LEAP Ahead, And Speed Up AMBER Alerts
CHICAGO (CBS) -- A new AMBER Alert system that state officials have been using for several months has made it quicker to get the word out about missing children.
Illinois is the 10th state to use the Law Enforcement Alerting Platform (LEAP). Alert GPS has provided Illinois State Police free access to the web-based program, which was designed to reduce the time it takes for police to disseminate information on missing children to the public.
"The AMBER Alert system in Illinois, like many other things over time, became old, and was past its shelf life, and needed to be upgraded," Illinois State Police AMBER Alert Supervisor Craig Burge said.
Time is of the essence when a child is missing, and Illinois State Police Lt. Bob Meeder said LEAP shaves off valuable time when inputting information, and notifying main distributors of AMBER Alerts -- the media, cellular service providers, and the Illinois Department of Transportation, which operates highway signs that display AMBER Alerts.
"Previously, missing child information had to be manually entered, and converted, which took away valuable minutes from searching for a missing child," Meeder said.
Podcast
Burge said, in the past, it would have taken up to an hour to compile and distribute all the information needed to issue an AMBER Alert, but now the goal is less than 10 to 15 minutes.
"The LEAP system dramatically increases the speed and efficiency for which AMBER Alerts are released, in order to inform as many people as possible, in as many ways as possible," he said.
The state did not have to buy any new equipment in order to use LEAP, according to Burge.
Since last August, Illinois has put out five AMBER Alerts using the new system. Burge said the state waited to reveal its use of a new system for AMBER Alerts, because it wanted to make sure everything was working properly in tests and in real-life.
