By ALEX BRANCH
abranch@star-telegram.com
The mother of Amber Hagerman, whose 1996 kidnapping and murder led to the Amber Alert system, is a partner in a new business that is designed to help authorities find missing children, according to a company news release.
Amber Child Safety Systems helps parents store their child’s identifying characteristics, as well as the names of adults they have contact with, the company says.
"No parent should ever know the pain of losing a child the way I did," Donna Norris, Hagerman’s mother, said in a statement released by the company. "That’s why I am so proud to be a part of this. I know it will help save children."
Parents who use the system fill out a lengthy questionnaire and provide their children’s general information like height, weight, hair color and scars, said Tad Camp, the company founder and a private investigator in Florida. They can also upload photographs and videos of the children, images they are encouraged to update often.
"The main purpose is to provide law enforcement access to the information they actually need," Camp said.
Camp said he has worked on the system more than a year. He teamed with Norris after they were introduced by a mutual acquaintance and eventually decided to name the system after Amber, who was 9 when she was killed.
Camp said that what sets the system apart from companies offering similar services is the feature that allows parents to register the names of adults in their children’s lives.
Most child abductions labeled "stranger abductions" aren’t really committed by strangers but by people with access to the child, he said. The system is designed to identify those people.
"It can be information on every adult [a child] has contact with," he said. "It could be their bus driver, schoolteacher, a piano teacher, a Sunday school teacher or anyone."
When a child goes missing, parents can quickly access their child’s information and give it to authorities, Camp said.
"The first few hours after a child abduction are critical, and authorities have to identify and eliminate suspects immediately," he said.
When a parent enters an adult’s name into the system, the name is automatically run through a national sex offender registry, Camp added.
Accounts for a family of up to five children cost $15 a month, he said.
Amber, who was riding her bicycle Jan. 14, 1996, was abducted by a man in a black pickup in Arlington.
Vigil A candlelight vigil in memory of Amber Hagerman will begin at 6 p.m. Jan. 13 at the Winn-Dixie Supermarket parking lot at East Abram Street and Browning Drive in Arlington. Participants are asked to bring candles.
ALEX BRANCH, 817-390-7689
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