Public Safety
WHEREAS, in the early morning hours of July 17, 2013, New York area cellphones blared with a message about a 7-month-old boy who had been abducted from a foster care agency in Harlem hours earlier by his mother, who had a history of mental illness; and
WHEREAS, after learning that the child might be riding in a car, the cellphone alert" included the car's license plate number and, according to New York City Police, it directly led to the child being located; and
WHEREAS, it was the first mass Amber Alert sent to cellphones in New York City since a national wireless emergency alert system was established; and
WHEREAS, the Amber Alert was transmitted via a national cellular network, known as the Wireless Emergency Alerts system, which was mandated by Congress as a way to supplement radio and television broadcasts; and
WHEREAS, the Wireless Emergency Alerts system was built through a partnership of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), the Federal Communications Commission and the wireless industry; and
WHEREAS, FEMA, which administers the network, has authorized designated federal, state and local agencies to use it; and
WHEREAS, after an alert from an agency, FEMA transmits it to cellular carriers, which then relay it to cellphone users; and
WHEREAS, alerts consist of extreme weather and other threatening emergencies in the area, AMBER Alerts, and Presidential Alerts during a national emergency; and
WHEREAS, according to FEMA officials, the first alerts went out in 2011, and most of them have been weather-related warnings; and
WHEREAS, Amber Alerts were first issued in the 1990s in the Dallas-Fort Worth area after a local girl was abducted and murdered; and
WHEREAS, the alerts, which initially were initially broadcast on TV and radio, later spread to road signs, social media sites, and now cellphones ; and
WHEREAS, according to the cellphone industry, more than 300 million people use cellphones in the United Sates; and
WHEREAS, mor...
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