AMBER Alert platform generates 6 million hits in 24 hours

Posted March 23, 2010 at 12:15 pm by admin in News.

On Thursday the 11th of March, AMBER Alert, the nationwide alert system for missing children and child abductions, has sent out an AMBER Alert regarding a missing child. In the first 24 hours this led to 6 million hits on the AMBER Alert platform. This was the first AMBER Alert since the operation of the new infrastructure, sponsored and made available for free by IC&S. During the alert, the new platform performed smoothly.

As the AMBER Alert platform can rely on 24×7 service of IC&S (former name of Jitscale), during this alert they knew that if any problems should arise, they could count on constant monitoring and readiness of skilled engineers. In hindsight, this proved to have been superfluously as the infrastructure could easily handle the load.

In the case of AMBER Alert continued operation of the infrastructure is vital; the more people receiving the message, the bigger the chance of finding the missing child (on time).

Therefore, IC&S regrets to have to observe AMBER Alert has recently felt forced to sound the tocsin regarding its future. The organization is worried, as the sponsor contracts end in July 2011 and as yet no funding or grants have been made available. So IC&S backs the appeal of AMBER Alert to politicians to commit to this service to guarantee the continuity of this valuable initiative. Minister of the Interior & Justice, Hirsch Ballin, has now promised to start funding AMBER Alert.