State agency tests Amber Alert today
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By Cristna Kumka Rutland Herald - Published: December 4, 2008
The Vermont Department of Public Safety will conduct its third full-scale test of the Amber Child Abduction Alert system today at 10 a.m., prompted by a transfer of authority over the system from Vermont State Police dispatchers in Waterbury to dispatchers in Rockingham.
The point of a real Amber Alert and a test is one in the same — to make sure state public safety personnel take the proper procedures to make the public fully aware of a child abduction.
Electronic message boards on Interstate 89, mass e-mails to all media outlets, and an activated Emergency Broadcast System and Vermont Lottery Notification System will notify the public first of a test, then of specific details about a fictional abducted child, a fictional suspect wanted for that abduction and a fictional vehicle on the run, said State Police Lt. Mark Lauer, who has been in charge of the state's Amber Alert system since 2005.
Today's 45-minute alert is a practice run that will include a mock carjacking involving a fictional child at an undetermined location in the Bellows Falls area, Lauer said.
The test is part of training for Rockingham dispatchers who will take over all responsibility for the alert system for the first time by the end of this month, the result of a "cost-saving measure" to eliminate the Waterbury dispatch office by Vermont State Police, Lauer said. The dispatch's first test on how well they can handle the new job will be today.
For more information or to register your cell phone to receive an alert, go to dps.state.vt.us/vtsp/amber.
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