Missing Persons Alerts Explained: AMBER, Ashanti & WEA—What Works, What Fails, and What Saves Lives | Sponsored by Everbridge

In this episode of The Alerting Authority, hosts Jeannette Sutton and Eddie Bertola sit down with veteran alerting leader Carri Gordon to break down the evolution, effectiveness, and future of missing persons alerts.

With nearly 35 years of experience in emergency communications and public safety, Carri shares her journey from early dispatch operations—long before modern alerting systems—to leading statewide alert programs and now serving as a national subject matter expert on the Ashanti Alert initiative.

This episode dives deep into:

•  How AMBER Alerts evolved from manual processes to real-time notifications 
•  The critical role of Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) in saving lives 
•  Why actionable information matters more than awareness alone 
•  The truth about alert criteria, delays, and decision-making
•  How the Ashanti Alert Act is transforming missing adult alerting nationwide 
•  Lessons learned from real cases—both successful recoveries and tragic outcomes 
•  Why the public should never disable emergency alerts on their phones

You’ll also hear firsthand stories of alerts leading to recoveries within minutes—and the hard lessons that reshaped how alerting authorities operate today.

Whether you’re in emergency management, law enforcement, public safety communications, or simply want to understand how these systems protect communities, this episode provides expert insight into the science, strategy, and human impact behind every alert.

🎙️ Sponsored by Everbridge

This episode is proudly sponsored by Everbridge, a global leader in critical event management (CEM). Trusted by over 6,500 organizations worldwide, Everbridge helps governments and enterprises anticipate, respond to, and recover from critical events using powerful, AI-driven alerting and resilience solutions.

Transcript

SPEAKER_00 0:06

I'm Jean and I'm Eddie Bertola.

SPEAKER_04 0:10

And we welcome you to another episode of the Alerting Authority. And as always, we encourage you to subscribe, follow, listen, and most importantly, participate in these podcasts. We want your questions, concerns, ideas, problems, pain points, and success stories so we as alerting authorities can do better at our jobs and make our community safer.

SPEAKER_00 0:32

And with that, we want to thank our sponsors and Everbridge is sponsoring this one. And Everbridge is used by more than 6,500 global organizations to keep people safe and reduce disruption during operations. They help leading enterprises and government organizations across the globe build digital and physical resilience by using their industry-leading solutions. Today, their high-velocity CEM platform, powered by purpose-built AI, sets a world standard for business resilience. With Everbridge, customers can confidently anticipate, mitigate, respond to, and recover from critical events. And with all of that said, Jeanette, I am really excited to tell you about our guest today, who's on the screen, if for those that are watching on YouTube, but for those that are just listening in their car. We have someone that I have known for a number of years. She probably has more dirt on me than anyone else that I've ever worked with in the alerting world. And what I mean, of course, there isn't any, but if there would be dirt, she she would have some, I'm sure. We've had late night calls dealing with emergency incidents. We've been through some pretty traumatic type events together. And this person is, you know, um, oh, let me just give you her background and then we'll talk a little bit more about her. But Carrie, um, she retired on May 1st. That was her liberation day of 2025 after almost 35 years with the Washington Um State Patrol. Right?

SPEAKER_02 2:07

Is that an odd yes? Cannot believe it.

SPEAKER_00 2:10

35. Um, I'm just thinking how where the time has gone. But she began in 1991 as a communications officer or dispatcher, and then traveled this pretty cool path to um essentially lead the alert program for her state. Um and we'll go into some of those nuances because I don't want to steal it. But she has provided a lot of training throughout her state for um dispatch, for troopers, communication staff, um, partner stakeholder agencies, and has developed training programs that have gone national as well. Um, she served as the facilitator for the leadership in police organization, um, teaching ethics and conflict management. She has done different things with youth in crisis. And again, her time as a dispatcher really gives her a perspective that I don't even have from that. And so it lends to a lot of the training. But in her last 12 years, where she had to work with me a whole lot more, um, Carrie was the state Amber Alert Coordinator and the manager of the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit. She worked over 100 Amber Alerts and hundreds of other cases because there are many more cases that just don't qualify that we still do stuff with. She also helped develop within her state multiple alert programs, such as the Endangered Missing Persons, Silver, Blue, and the most recent one, the Missing Indigenous Persons Alert. And that is just within her state. Now, what's really cool about her and what she's done since is working with the Ashanti Alert program. So she is currently the lead subject matter expert for the Ashanti Alert program. And it's something that I think we've touched on a little bit as we've talked about all the different alerts. Um, but this is something that post-retirement has really been her focus. And she is out on the national stage talking about this and the ins and outs. Um, so with all of that, I know that's a lot of information, but I want to say welcome, Carrie, and I'm happy that you're on our show.

SPEAKER_05 4:22

And I'm grateful for being here. Thank you for having me.

SPEAKER_04 4:25

Well, that was a great introduction, Eddie, and I'm excited to learn more about the ins and outs of how you got to where you are, Carrie, because your path, it seems unique. Um, you started with dispatching and alerting programs for your state, and now you're at this national level. Can you walk us through your journey and how you developed your expertise in alert and public warning?

SPEAKER_05 4:51

Sure. So I started in dispatch, as Eddie mentioned. Um, and as you can well imagine, technology back then was extremely limited, and we didn't know anything about missing person alerting. Amber wasn't a thing. There were, there wasn't anything even like that. So the way that we shared information back then was by telephone or fax machine or or however method we could get the information out. We didn't even have email back then. So um, and why that's important is because when the Amber Alert Law was signed into Washington state in 2004, we really had no idea what we were doing. I helped at the time that there was a committee formed to determine how Washington was gonna implement that plan. And part of that was trying to figure out how we were gonna share information. And so what we did with that is we determined the best, you know, the best course for sharing information. And then as things moved out, you know, we had we had to checklist. We had, you know, you're gonna call the local agencies and you're gonna fax photos and you're gonna do all of those steps and whatnot. And so um, that's where we started. And then we had to train law enforcement all around the state, um, almost 200 law enforcement agencies in Washington state, including their dispatchers, because as you know, that's the first call that comes in. Um, and so I became very familiar with criteria, with methods, and then from the other side of things, um, you know, alerting and the determination at that point was made at the local level. So we didn't have any say about whether it was an Amber alert or not. We just pushed out the information. Um, and and then as things evolved, um, and after I became the alert coordinator and the manager of the missing persons unit, um, we looked at some necessary technology changes at the time because things had evolved. And even when I took that job in 2012, we were still allowing local agencies to send out their own alerts. So we had to look at some revisions to process, to procedure, and you know, uh that's where things started to get the ball rolling to where we are today.

SPEAKER_03 7:07

That answered.

SPEAKER_04 7:08

And when when um when local organizations were sending out their own alerts, what did that what does that mean? Like they were faxing messages to each other, or what what kind of technologies were they using?

SPEAKER_05 7:21

So we first started using a program called LEAP. It was law enforcement alerting portal, and it was provided at the time to law enforcement at no cost. So we um our agencies in our state actually had the capability of logging into LEAP, which the training for that was all provided by us, but they could log in, they could enter the missing person information and actually hit the disseminate button on their own. So um they could send out alerts whenever they determined it was an alert. And so there was really no check and balance, there was no process control, there was there was no structure. So um, and then imagine trying to keep hundreds of law enforcement agencies and users up to date and current with passwords, logins, training. Um, and then that program that we used, Leap, was extremely limited into what we could do with it. So there were a lot of a lot of hoops we had to jump through to try to figure out a better way.

SPEAKER_04 8:25

I have one more question, Eddie. Go for it. This is all new to me because I haven't lived in this space and and you have for so many years. When you say alert, who's actually receiving the alert?

SPEAKER_05 8:37

At the time it was mostly media because we had no way of um implicating a subscriber list to direct to the public. Um we relied on the media, we relied on local law enforcement, be on the lookouts, you know, attempt to locate whatever their um process was. So again, we had at the time there was always um the reverse 911 option was there, but again, that all was controlled at the local level. So there was no state-level oversight. We attempted to have state-level oversight by requiring um an after-action report. Um, but then we we determined over the years that kind of trickled down and there wasn't a lot of participation in that. So again, that sparked yet another reason why we needed some reform to the system.

SPEAKER_04 9:29

Yeah. So this leap system is pushing information out to other law enforcement agencies and to the media. And the media gets to choose whether or not they're gonna actually share that information with the public. But the media were kind of your intermediaries to get that information out so that the public could actually be partners in helping to find missing persons. Right. That is correct. Well, all right.

SPEAKER_00 9:53

And one thing that's cool, and I mean, you've been doing this for over 35 years. I think you started at the age of eight or 10 doing this, is there's the hard way and then there's the the easier way to learn. And for you and I, we were not given the opportunity that a lot of people who are just starting this have. And what I mean by that is we have science now. We have research that's been done so that we can adjust the way that we send alerts, the contents of the alert, and all those things to make it really effective. You didn't have that, and I did not have that. And so understanding that journey, because we're when we started, it was, and let me just go before because I know Jeanette's probably gonna be like, well, there like a lot of research has been there. Um we were not um given that, and I didn't know where to look for it. Um, and it definitely isn't as available as it is now. So for people listening out there, I think it's important to understand that your path was similar to mine, right? Where we're doing the best we can, the limited information we can. And so I just wanted to ask you how what was your journey in this aspect of how did you go from I'm doing the best I can to I'm now I'm starting to reach and get the the practices or the research or trying to make your stuff a better quality, if that makes sense.

SPEAKER_05 11:21

There were several things. I uh and again, I think um the phrase that comes to mind as you were talking is trial and error. You know, we made a lot of mistakes. Um, and while that was, you know, just in our state, um, at the time there was no communication with other states, no um no, no relationships, I guess, for lack of a better word. We had no idea what was going on in other states. And that was one thing I really wanted to bring to the table is I'm like, why are we doing something in a vacuum? We need to be communicating outside of our state and find out what other states are doing. You know, there are better ways of doing everything. So let's figure this out. Um, but I can think of several, several times where it was trial and error and just kind of figuring it out. Um, and then when we did, when I personally started to reach out, that is when I found, you know, the Amber Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program, Fox Valley, which um allowed for that um networking opportunity. So that's how I got kind of to that level. And then, you know, relationship building with the National Center for Miss and Exploited Children, you know, I participated in a rewrite of a best practices guide way in the, I want to say, 2017, 2016 timeframe. Um, you're nodding your head because you remember.

SPEAKER_02 12:40

Um I remember.

SPEAKER_05 12:41

And so we, you know, that also helped me to know uh and be kind of share my, you know, this is what I did, and this didn't work or this did work. And talking with people like Eddie, you know, and and his state having a massively larger population than Washington State, you know, you have to be reaching more people. What are you doing? And so it was stuff like that that really kind of enhanced the program, at least for Washington State anyway.

SPEAKER_00 13:09

Well, and learning from trial and error, in case anybody is thinking, man, that sounds fun. That's not fun. And that's where we we have multiple groups that are listening to this. For those that are that have been doing this a long time, this counts to you. For those that have just started or want to do this in the future, use the resources that are available now so that you don't have to go through that trial and error. Because while there were a lot of things that I did, I I think we learned and we discovered and that ended up being really effective, it's cool now that people can start with that baseline foundation and already just be that much further ahead within their own organizational programs. So um I I would say, and I think we're gonna touch on it just a little bit, but if there were some of those early lessons or anything that really shaped as you started alerting, um, I know you and I have talked about tragedies in the past. Um, and I think for people listening, we can talk about successes, and and there are many, and I love all of them. But the ones that I remember, like to this day, and I can tell you names and dates are the ones we didn't get back alive. And it's those types of situations that I that I think, at least for me, really impacted the development of the alerting program because it helped my drive. And I just wanted to ask if it was similar for you.

SPEAKER_05 14:37

Yeah, two cases come to mind. Um, and I just thought of them as you were talking. Um, and the the learning lessons that we took away from both of these cases kind of have carried through, and I think on a lot of levels in a lot of states. Uh, the first one is our very first amber alert that was ever activated in Washington State was for a five-year-old who vanished. She just disappeared out of her front yard or off the sidewalk in front of her home. And at the time, Amber was new and it was a new tool. And so we activated that alert. And that was back in, I believe it was 2006, I believe. And that child has still never been found. Um, and to say at the time, you know, that we tried everything we could is a great thing to fall back on. But in reality, the alert didn't wouldn't have and didn't assist in any way. It uh the media had already covered the case, you know, it was very out there. And we've had others along the way in our state that were very similar where they disappeared with no um circumstances. So what I took away from that and what I share in my training is make sure that you have something to give to the public. And, you know, Eddie and I talk about this in our training, and I talk about it all the time is do you have enough information to give to the public that you're gonna get information back to help you locate this child? And if all you have is a photograph in 2006, that's not gonna be helpful to get to get your information out to the public. And so if that case were to happen today, and they do, sadly, um, that would not qualify as an amber alert. And now, thankfully, we have other tools, but you know, at the time, that's what we had to fall back on. And then the other case is the unfortunate case of Zina Linnock, who was abducted and murdered in uh the city of Tacoma. Um, there was an amber alert issued for her. However, there were significant delays in getting that amber alert issued for several reasons. Um, not on our case, that was at the time when the agency was was activating their own alert. Um and that was this typical stereotypical abduction where she was, and and you cannot write this any more stereotypical. She was abducted from an alleyway behind her home on the 4th of July in a white van. Um, with they had the license plate. It was witnessed by her siblings. Um, they had everything. And unfortunately, they just didn't get the alert out in time. We didn't have the tools at the time, or whatever the case may have been. But she was um murdered and the suspect was found, uh, but not as a result of the alert. So those stick with me. Um, time is critical from the Xena Linux case, but it needs to get out as quickly as possible. We do not have time to lose. Um, and then the first case of having enough information.

SPEAKER_04 17:38

Well, and Carrie, when you say give people information to act on, but a photo is not enough, what do you mean? What kind of information do you need to help people to to take action?

SPEAKER_05 17:54

Um I I think if if the cases where the child disappears with no no suspect, no witnesses, no anything, I think we need current clothing, current hairstyle, like a photograph that was taken with the child wearing those clothes. You know, just something something specific to look for. Um, and a photograph of the child if if it's showing the current clothing is enough in my mind. But you know, we just need enough. We need something to give to the public. And a lot of agencies take that to mean I have to have a suspect or I have to have a vehicle. And that's not the case. We we have to have enough to give to the public that it's gonna be valuable to them to help us. And a school photo from eight months ago is not gonna be helpful. And so that's that's just the decision-making kind of triangle that we try we try to go off of.

SPEAKER_04 18:49

Thank you. I think that's really helpful because if you're trying, I mean, if timeliness is really important for these cases. And so providing information about most recently seen, most recently known to look like would be really useful for people if you want us to get up out of our chairs and go out and look for the person who might be in the backyard or in a vehicle nearby. Um, so I think that's that's critical information for people to understand that they need to have those kinds of details to share with the public. Um so you talked about these examples that were just really tragic, but you've also been part of activations where the stakes are really high and everything came together. So can you tell us some stories about times where you you know that this was successful, people came together, that an alert played a role in this? Like, what was that like?

SPEAKER_05 19:49

Um, well, I can honestly say that those immediate recoveries as a direct result of the alert didn't really start to impact us until WIA came into the picture, the wireless emergency alerts. Um, the very first wireless alert that we activated um I could almost do an entire podcast on that. But suffice it to say, it should not have gone out when it did, but it did. Um, and it the it was an out-of-state abduction, so it was from Montana to Washington State. Um, it went out in the early hours of the morning. Um, and the child was recovered after we got significant complaints all the way up to our governor's office. Um, the child was recovered because somebody did remember that vehicle description from their phone at three o'clock in the morning and went to work at 5 a.m. and saw that vehicle in the parking lot of their apartment complex and called it in. They were sleeping in their car in an apartment complex in Fife, Washington. Um, and so and we tried to, you know, use that information with the public to say, hey, you know, this does work. No, we don't necessarily want to wake you up at three o'clock in the morning, but in this case, this child needed to be found immediately. And they they thankfully were, you know, several hours after the alert was activated. Um the the other times I I can tell you where we uh came into play, there was a time where we activated the alert and a trooper was behind the car and called into dispatch and said, Hey, I'm following that vehicle right now, and was able to instigate a traffic stop. And that's less than five minutes after we, you know, push the button, I for lack of a better word, and that that child was safely recovered. And then we've had success stories with the public calling in saying, I'm behind that vehicle. And it's it's just mind blowing how quickly these can end because of that tool.

SPEAKER_04 21:53

Yeah, I I think Eddie's shared stories like that before too, where someone was not. Supposed to be on their phone and so they were texting instead. Texting a response to Eddie about being behind the car and what did I do? And um, I mean, it's it's really it's amazing the power that WIA has if people get a message that they can read and make sense of at the time when they receive it, and it's actionable. And um, so that license plate information, the vehicle description that was included in those messages, it helped people to take action immediately.

SPEAKER_05 22:37

Absolutely. You got to give them information to know what they're looking for. And if there's a vehicle involved, obviously that's gonna be the most obvious thing. Um, but we've evolved since then, even.

SPEAKER_00 22:49

So I again, Carrie and I can go back and forth on whose uh recoveries have been the quickest. I don't know, it's one of those, hey, we're down to three minutes, or we got ours in five or two, it's back and forth, and ultimately the ones who win are the those that are being recovered. Um, it's just amazing how much quicker it can be. And I think, Jeanette, you said it along with Carrie, when you give our communities actionable information, right? But you give them that the quality and completeness of what you're asking them to do. Because if you're just trying to tell them that a horrible thing happened, then that doesn't help the situation at all. Um, it's really what can you do to make a difference, to give people that the information so they can make a choice of whether or not they're gonna jump into this. And it is individual. So there are some pretty cool stories, and um, you may touch on some of those. I don't want to give any away if you if you want to. Um I want to ask about different challenges or lessons, and this isn't where an activation has um ended up where we don't recover the child alive. This deals more on that technical side because tools have changed, operations have changed, um, the way the policies have changed. And you mentioned how even sending off the wireless emergency alert in the early hours of the morning, which we've done too, uh, real it's that trial and error going, hey, you know, there's a better way, and then we adjust to that better way. But has there been anything that stands out, whether it's uh operational or technical, or how you communicated with other stakeholders to where you're like, hey, we saw this, this was a challenge, but we did it this way, and it ended up being like we figured something out.

SPEAKER_05 24:43

That is a tough question.

SPEAKER_00 24:45

Um I'm known for those, Carrie. You know.

SPEAKER_05 24:51

Um I can't think of a case where we specifically made a mistake that ended up being working at the end.

SPEAKER_00 25:01

Or even if there's if there's a challenge or something that you're like, hey, our process is struggling, we need to let's look at it. And it doesn't have to be related to a specific case, but something to where you recognized we need to make an adjustment. What has what's been a big part of your process or something where you're like, we're doing this? And if I can kind of put one out there, I remember when you started sending your own wireless emergency alerts, right?

SPEAKER_05 25:30

Yes.

SPEAKER_00 25:31

That we have a lot of people that listen that rely on NECMEC or others to send their alerts. Um, which again, my agency did too for a while, but then we made that decision. We're gonna get trained and we're gonna send them because we want to be responsible for our community. Did you go through a similar thing?

SPEAKER_05 25:50

Um, absolutely. Yeah. In fact, we with the passage of the Missing Indigenous Person Alert is where everything changed for us technology-wise. Um, that was the only alert passed in our state that came with any funding at all. And as part of that funding, we were able to purchase new software. Up, I mean, up until that point, we were relying on lists or email listserves and NECMEC for our Wiias, as you mentioned. And it was just kind of discombobulated. The systems were kind of all over the place. And so with that funding, we were able to purchase our own software license to um be able to activate our own wireless emergency alerts. So that came with also a lot of changes where we um centralized the alerting process. We took it out of the hands of our dispatch centers, out of the hands of local law enforcement, and put it with my unit that I worked in at the time, my team. So four people instead of potentially hundreds are the only ones now who have the capability of logging in and activating an alert. The decision about criteria being met is in collaboration with local law enforcement. We're not the decision makers 100% on that piece, but we are the only ones who have the capability of sending that message out. And that really, really helped with consistency, with um just the decision making being, you know, all on the same page a lot of the times. And it it has changed everything, I believe. And training is so much more eat so much more um efficient with four people than traveling around the state trying to train hundreds of dispatchers and law enforcement officers.

SPEAKER_00 27:37

Yeah, and for anybody who's ever tried to train dispatcher law enforcement, bless your heart. And I mean that that that is one of the most difficult groups to train anything. And you can rag on me for saying that. I am one of them. I know how hard we are to train. Um so yeah, going back to the four people, it's got to be much easier. You talked about the consistency. I think the quality of your alerts definitely increased because you could focus on those key things that you needed to put in. Um and again, just sponsorship, right? And when it comes to software, and you mentioned that you had to go through the process to get some. Um, it is not just about sending that message, right? Because you want to make sure the right people get the right information at the right time. And so that's where Everbridge can help, right? From global enterprises to government agencies, they will help you stay ahead of any disruption and protect what matters most. And to touch on again, they have that high velocity CEM platform and using purpose-built AI instead of just general reach from wherever. And they will help you anticipate the risks, communicate clearly, and just recover faster when critical events occur. And so it can be severe weather, operational disrupt disruptions, or a major incident. Um, Everbridge gives leaders the confidence to act quickly and decisively. So if resilience matters to your organization, which the answer should be yes to everybody, um, Everbridge can help you in achieving this global standard. So you can learn more at Everbridge.com.

SPEAKER_05 29:12

We did go with Everbridge too, by the way. There's a plug. I'm just want to make that make that out there and make that clear.

SPEAKER_04 29:23

They are a very large company and adopted by a lot of organizations. Um, let's transition a little bit to what you're currently doing.

SPEAKER_03 29:32

Um you know when Amber Alert rolled out, I don't even what year was that?

SPEAKER_05 29:40

When was the Amber Alert program put into place? In our state it was in 2004. I think um some it was between like 2002, 2005, 6 timeframe.

SPEAKER_03 29:51

But at the national level, it was much earlier, wasn't it? No. Boy.

SPEAKER_04 29:59

So I had these memories of being a kid and looking at missing persons pictures on the milk cartons. But that wasn't Amber. That was just missing person just that was missing persons. Okay. Well, you know, watching these different programs translation.

SPEAKER_01 30:17

Yeah, milk cartons for those that don't know. Milk used to come. I know, I I always say that laughing because I like my kids are gonna be like, what? A what?

SPEAKER_00 30:30

A what? But it but it's like a real thing. I mean, I I grew up with it too.

SPEAKER_04 30:36

Yeah, yeah. They're like these paper. Okay, let me describe it. It's it's like a it's like a a box. Um, it's a cylinder and it's made out of paper with a waxy substance on the outside, and the paper is printed with the label of the milk company. And on the back of it, there was a picture frequently of a person who was missing and their description. And I don't know if it was at a state level or a national level that these missing persons' pictures were shared, but they were they were on your milk carton. So if you sat down at breakfast and you're having your bowl of cereal, you know, it could be Wheaties or it could be Captain Crunch or whatever. Dating myself on that probably too, but you know, the milk carton sits on the table in front of you. And back then, years ago, when we didn't have social media and other stuff to read while we were sitting at the breakfast table, you know, we would read what's in front of us. And sometimes it was the milk carton. So it was a great way to share that information in a really personalized manner because it's actually like in your kitchen on your table and you see it. So, okay, milk cartons. That was your little lesson for anybody who's as old as I am.

SPEAKER_02 31:53

You're not allowed. That's not what I'm that's funny.

SPEAKER_04 31:59

Okay, Ashanti, the Ashanti program. I don't know if there was a missing person's kind of a program that existed before Ashanti, but it's newer and it's really unfamiliar to people who have not had the education to understand it. So, can you tell us what an Ashanti alert is, why it's an important addition to the alerting landscape, and why don't we use plain language? Why is it Ashanti?

SPEAKER_05 32:27

What's what's it all about? So I'm really happy to clarify this because this is a mis uh misnomer and misunderstanding around the country to a lot of people. And so um I'm I'm grateful to be able to explain. So the Ashanti Alert Initiative was um signed into law in 2018 um at the federal level, um, based on a case of a missing young adult um named Ashanti Billy. And so that's where the name came from. In Ashanti's case, she was abducted from Virginia and found in North Carolina. So there was about a 350-mile stretch where you know she was abducted from and to. So the need was identified to establish an information sharing network amongst states. So that was the bill that was signed um into law. And um, once the the act became came to be and there were there was funding associated with it, one of the very first things that they did was to go out and pull states to find out if they had existing programs that met or exceeded what the Ashanti Um Act was intended to accomplish. And they at the time, kind of the feeling was is that states didn't already have missing adult programs, that there were silver and there was amber, and that was it. And that that was just not the case. Um, states had missing adult alerts or missing alerts that covered this demographic of what we're trying to talk about, but they had different naming conventions. They weren't called Ashanti, they were called endangered missing persons. They were called um purple alerts, I guess, for the missing with um disabilities. Or, you know, you had various alert names around the country, but they all covered that um criteria that was identified in the Ashanti Alert Act. So for states like mine, Washington, part of the Ashanti Act said that it should cover the cases of an abducted adult. So all we had to do in Washington was add the word abduction to our criteria for an endangered missing, and we met that threshold of being um an Ashanti type alert. So states that have named Ashanti alerts, um, I believe we're at three or four right now that around the country that call them Ashanti alerts. Um, but the states that did that did that at the local level. They were enacted by those states' legislative process. Um, the Ashanti Alert Act did not say you have to call your alert an Ashanti alert. It was intended to provide guidance to law enforcement agencies that did not already have, like us, that language regarding abductions, or maybe they didn't have a missing adult program at all. And they they used this um guideline to establish their own. So, and there is no, again, there's no requirement to call any missing adult alert that is not an amber or a silver a shanti. It's just the network and the um act was intended to help guide states to establish those programs if they didn't already have one.

SPEAKER_04 35:47

That's super helpful. But but you also named another, you named a couple of other alerts in there as you were going through because there's dozens of different alerts, and different states have different programs that they've adopted. Can you explain silver?

SPEAKER_03 36:05

Is silver also a national program?

SPEAKER_05 36:08

And okay. No, I'm sorry, I'm sorry to interrupt. Um, in fact, this has been a discussion at the Ashanti um table this past couple years, is who's in charge of this silver alert program? And there is not a silver alert initiative at the national level. So, what we're trying to do with Ashanti, because we do have that act at the national level, we're trying to kind of tie in a lot of these silver alert programs to our training, uh, proposed training or proposed outreach to states. We're trying to help them and guide them if they have any um training needs with regard to those alerts. Because again, there is nobody at the national level. Uh, we've reached out to the Alzheimer's Association. They were involved in Washington when we established ours with developing criteria. We've reached out to AARP to see if they manage it, and there's just no national level guidance point, I guess, for the silver alert program. And silver alerts are for older adults, 65 and up? It depends on the state. Okay. In general, I've I've seen states with 55 and up, I've seen states with 60 and up. In Washington, it was 65. So it's it's variable. It's it's all over the place.

SPEAKER_04 37:27

And you mentioned Alzheimer's. So it's not an abduction-related issue. It's something else that the older adult is missing.

SPEAKER_05 37:37

Um states don't require the dementia piece that the Alzheimer's Association deals with. Um, if the person is in danger because of a medical issue, it could be lack of medication, it could be another health issue, you know, diabetes or, you know, a life-threatening illness. Um, that's the criteria that we like to focus on, not necessarily dementia, but um I use the phrase quite often, and I'm sure my team back in the missing persons unit got tired of hearing me say it. But if the person cannot return to safety without assistance, they qualify, period. If they are not able to return on their own for whatever reason, dementia, cognitive disability, physical disability, uh, mental health disability, something, um, then they would qualify for these alerts.

SPEAKER_04 38:30

Thank you. I think that it's it's really important for us to recognize not only the number of different types of alerts, but also to understand what they each mean. Um, you know, I when I first met Eddie, he was collecting all of the alerts at the state level. And even since then, the last couple of years, more have been added. And so, you know, having a library of those alerts to understand what different states do and the criteria that go along with each of them, I think it's really important for local alerting authorities to see how, see what their state does and understand the criteria. Um, and then something you were starting to talk about, which maybe we'll get to later, is the importance of the language of even describing those people with the inability to return home safely, which um really helps to kind of um explain why it's so important that people help at the time that the alert is received. So yeah. Um so as we've been talking about uh these different kinds of alerts, why why do you think that state and local alerting authorities should be paying attention to Ashanti alerts right now?

SPEAKER_05 39:51

Well, I I think they compose the majority of our missing person cases are adults. Um or long-term missing cases are are adults. Um that is the bulk of missing person cases that go for an extended period of time or are usually largely kind of forgotten about. You know, you the the the theory is if you're an adult, you're allowed to go missing. Or um it's not illegal to be missing. It's not against the law to be missing until there's a crime, which a lot of these missing persons' cases end up having a crime element, but at the time they go missing, there's no crime normally, you know, a lot of times. Um, so you know, we try to educate law enforcement that this is a tool for them to use um if they believe that the alert or the person can't return on their own or the if the alert will help.

SPEAKER_03 40:47

So is there a sense that some organizations are not ready to not?

SPEAKER_05 40:54

Um, I think no, I I think there's just a misunderstanding about how the process works, where to go, who's gonna do it for me. You know, is there um do I have to have certain forms, guidance? You know, there's a lot of just misunderstanding at the local level about what their options are, which is what we're trying to close that that gap. Yeah, yeah.

SPEAKER_00 41:19

Which I think a lot of that misunderstanding can play into the fact that again, we have so many of different alerts out there, and who's responsible for them? Um, again, in California, it was the silver alert, it's for everybody 65 years or older, unless they have a cognitive impairment, physical disability. And so, I mean, we've done a silver alert for a three-year-old. And it makes sense based on the legislation, but if you're asking anybody in the public, it is absolutely confusing to them. They're like, that's that's not a silver alert, because silver alert should mean this or the other thing. And and so I absolutely see the confusion. And what I appreciate with the Ashanti Alert program that they're working on is what what we're hearing about now from I would say the Ashanti program comes after a few years of them trying to develop what it should be. What are the talking points? What does the training look like? What is the information sharing? Um, the group that that Carrie has been sitting in and being the the subject matter expert for. I mean, Carrie, this has been going on for a while, right? This is not, I mean, help me out, like the process has been pretty um thorough. Is that correct?

SPEAKER_05 42:38

With with Ashanti?

SPEAKER_00 42:40

Uh-huh.

SPEAKER_05 42:40

Our focus with Ashanti, to be quite honest, uh, for the last several years has been building the network, the tool that we're rolling out to law enforcement. It's an information sharing tool, it's web-based. And so we've been focusing largely on that and at the same time trying to share that message about missing adult alerts and why they're important. So there's been kind of a combination of focus um the past several years. Um, I've been involved with this, I think, um, going on what year are we in? I think I'm going on four years, I believe, working um as um a member of the stakeholder working group, which is their advisory group. And it's made up of, I believe we're up to 11 states now on the stakeholder working group. And nothing we do doesn't go through that group first. So we're always running through, you know, the like when we were building the network. The network's getting ready to go live, but as we were building it, it came with input from all of these stakeholder working group members. And so we're trying to find out what the needs are. Um, and we just brought on another SME to help, and we're trying to reach out to tribal groups to see what their needs are. So it's it's really at the very, very uh first floor level right now, but we're looking to really be amping it up in the coming years.

SPEAKER_00 44:01

So, which I think is really important. So, for anybody who's listening, right, let's say if if you're in that subject matter expert role, right, as and you're talking to an alerting authority today, and you're trying to help them get prepared, I would say for a shanti as a big part, but then for essentially doing what you and I have done for a long time, but they're starting. What would you recommend for them so that they can just start running, right? And not go through some of the trial and error that we've gone through.

SPEAKER_05 44:35

Well, there is um the Ashanti, the Bureau of Justice Assistance has an Ashanti um public webpage. And so you can go there to get more information about Ashanti to reach out to us, to contact us about the network. Um, but my primary um direction would be to go to your state alert coordinator or your state missing person clearinghouse manager. They're gonna be your go-to. They're the ones I talk to every week. Um uh so they're the ones to go to if you need any guidance. Um, we can bring training to your agency if you need to, or we can help coordinate that training at the local level with the contacts that we've established in in whatever state that you're in. And so the resources are out there now. Um, there's templates for plans that we can provide, there's criteria suggestions, um, there's a lot of tools out there available now.

SPEAKER_00 45:32

No, I just appreciate and to reiterate, trial and error, not fun, not the prescribed way. Go off of the not only the mistakes, but the successes that other people have have had and how we have adapted to the new research and the messaging and everything that's come out, and start from there and and just take off with your own path. So no, I appreciate that.

SPEAKER_04 45:59

Well, Carrie, you've seen this space evolve. You know, so if there's one thing you want every alerting authority to understand about this work from missing and endangered persons in general, what would it be? What's that one thing you want people to understand?

SPEAKER_05 46:15

That there's a lot of a lot of alerting uh authorities, a lot of of missing person alert coordinators have a lot of background and experience. And so when we decide to activate an alert, when we push the button or send it out or whatever lingo you want to use, there's been already been quite a lot of thought gone into whether this should go out or not. So what I for the public, anybody who's not familiar with this, if we didn't need your help, we wouldn't push that button. And so we need your eyes on this case. Um, we're embedding hyperlinks in there for you to be able to view photographs. Click on that link. If it is sent through the wireless alert, wireless emergency alert system, it's not a text message, it's not spam. Um, you're going to be able to get to and view what we need you to view. And so I and then my message too, and I almost forgot it. I can't believe I almost didn't add this in there, but do not disable those alerts on your phone. The wireless emergency alerts, the amber alerts, the law enforcement uh warnings are critical for emergency coordinators to get word out to the public. Please don't turn them off. They are so life-saving. I can't even stress it enough. Every time I get a call from the public asking me how to turn it off, I cringe and I'm like, I really wish you wouldn't, because and this is why, but if you really have to, this is how you do it. And so I my message is always, you know, we're not gonna send anything out to you that we don't need your help with immediately. There's a lot of rules and regulations, as you both know, but the public may not know, around the use of that tool. And so we're not going to misuse a tool that is so valuable to us. And so we're not gonna send out every single case that we don't believe is solvable. We're gonna send you information that we need to find this person that's critically in danger.

SPEAKER_04 48:24

Well, I think that that's an important distinction that you're raising about the regulations around when an alert can be issued. Because there are no regulations from FEMA about when you can use WIA to issue a message. And that's the reason you can send something at three in the morning, but you've learned from that. But it's all of the work that comes beforehand to determine this person is at the level, the threshold that that they meet this threshold of danger. And you've done all of that background activity to determine that. And in order to find them and to bring them home or bring them to safety, that's the threshold that you've met that triggers the ability to use Wii A. And um, and I think that's an important distinction, but it's it's critical because it truly shows that you're not using it haphazardly. You've done all of the work leading up to it, and now you know this is the point where you you are going to use the most powerful tool available to get this information out to the public. And I do think that that is that is a missing piece in people's understanding of why WIA is used for some cases and not for others, and and how it's used by different agencies.

SPEAKER_05 49:45

Absolutely. I'm glad you mentioned that because it it is we we get questions every time, you know, why and and you the the example that you used, why is it used for one and not for the other? I I can't even tell you how many times I've been asked that question. Um, and and that's how a lot of this legislation that we have have has happened because there's a misunderstanding that this didn't already exist already. And that's what the Ashanti uh Act was able to uncover as well. There was a misunderstanding even at the federal level that states didn't already have something. And and we did already have something. Um, did we have to tweak some things to make it fit? Sure. And that that's why it is a valuable act that we're now, you know, rolling out and making um uh these new tools to provide to alert coordinators. But whether a situation is determined to meet criteria or not, there has been a lot of thought gone into it at various levels. And so again, educate yourself, educate yourself on what's available in your state and what the criteria is. Um if you believe that the criteria isn't all-encompassing enough, then contact that inert alert coordinator and find out why. Because there may be a very, very good explanation for why. Um our silver alert was passed with that exact same mindset. It was passed because they didn't think that we already had something that covered that case type. And we did. We had the endangered missing persons advisory. It already covered that. They didn't feel like that was enough. The legislative process at the time didn't feel like that was enough. And so that's how a lot of these things are happening with the various alert types, is there's just not an understanding of of what's already out there and available to be used.

SPEAKER_04 51:32

So if people want to learn more about Ashanti alerts, um where do they where do they go? Where do they get that information?

SPEAKER_05 51:39

Uh the Bureau of Justice Assistance and it's Ashanti. There's an Ashanti Alert link on the Bureau of Justice Assistance webpage.

SPEAKER_04 51:47

Great. Well, thank you, Carrie. I mean, this has been a really great conversation. I've been looking forward to our opportunity to start really digging in on these questions around the different types of missing persons alerts, because, you know, early in our conversation today, Eddie, you made the comment of, well, the research has been there. It hasn't, not in terms of how to use wireless emergency alerts for missing persons. And not until more recently, where um, you know, when when my program at the University of Albany, when my research team started investigating WIA and helping to create guidelines for good messages, the first thing that the IPOS team asked for was amber alerts. And we said, we can't start with amber alerts. And the reason was we didn't have a good academic approach to studying them, to know that the way we were thinking about them took into account enough of the theory on what motivates people to take action to know that they could also be applied to missing persons' alerts in a way that it was consistent and it made sense. Um and so since that time, we have actually published one paper and we have another one under review. The first paper led by Lauren Kane. Um, and she reviewed all of the missing persons' alerts that have been issued as Wii As and has identified the contents and how they're structured and just a fantastic study that's available for anyone. Please reach out to us at the Alerting Authority. Happy to pass that study along to you. And the appendix actually has that list of all of those different kinds of alerts in it. So it's a really useful tool for anyone who's trying to get a grasp of what kinds of colors of alerts are out there. Um, and the second study that we did, uh, one of the things we asked was of our experiment participants is whether or not they understood the different terms that were used. Um and just as you were emphasizing the need for you know saying a missing abducted adult, missing endangered person, using that plain language becomes really important because people come up with some creative definitions for the terms that are being used in these messages that do not match the language that was created to represent those alert types. Um, so another reason for us to really dig in and and uh use plain language. But but the research exists now. And I'm I'm happy that the three of us are contributing to more research. Um, another paper that we're currently working on, which will go out for review this summer, um, actually describes how missing and endangered persons' messages should be written, the language, the structure for those wireless emergency alerts, and it draws from your expertise, Carrie, and Eddie's long-term involvement in this area. And we brought in the person from NICMIC and local alerting authorities and state um coordinators, and we got all of them to chime in on how these messages should be written so that they are the most effective and actionable. And I'm I'm really excited about bringing that information and maybe you can incorporate it into your training programs in the future because it would help. Um, just it would really help to make messages more actionable um across the board. Um, and so Carrie, I'm I'm just really happy that you were here with us today. Thank you so much for sharing your insight with us.

SPEAKER_05 55:35

Absolutely. I'm glad to be here. And I I want to also add that the Ashanti page on the BJA um website has also a link to or uh list of all of the various state alert types and also a link to contact that state alert coordinator page or or their contact information directly.

SPEAKER_04 55:58

That is great additional use useful information. Maybe we can put that in the show notes at the bottom of the screen. So um, so here at the Alerting Authority, we have uh ways that we can help. If you're listening to this long into our podcast, you know that we routinely do training and we'd love to assist your organization. Um, we can review the messages that you've issued, your templates that you're developing so that you are better prepared to issue good messages for all types of hazards, including missing persons. We do policy assistance and we have run the first warning boot camp with the second one coming in July, where you get personalized attention to develop your templates for all of the critical hazards that your organization faces. So please reach out to us. We want to help you to be more effective in your alerts. Um, we draw on years and years of experience as well as years and decades of research, um, and we're here to help.

SPEAKER_00 56:59

And just a quick thank you to Carrie. You've been my friend for a long time in this, and we've been through a lot together because as much as we get into statistics, to names of alerts and everything else, every missing person is a person, not a statistic. And they deserve our absolute best effort, anything we can give them to help them get back to their safe place. And that's where once you're in this space, you really start to understand because these are families that you're dealing with, these are faces, and you want them to be um returned. And and so thank you for your work in this area. Um I know it stays with you, and for everybody else out there doing this thinklessly, I'm thanking you very sincerely, and that's why we do the alerting authority. Um, because as we say, every second has a story, every missing person has a story, and we want to be there to help share yours and their story.

SPEAKER_02 58:03

So thank you for listening today.