Wireless Amber Alerts

Mobile Alerts

Client Objective The Canadian Wireless Telecommunications Association (CWTA) initiated the development of the Wireless AMBER Alerts program in Canada as a valuable new method to provide the public with immediate and up-to-date information about a child’s abduction, and to solicit the public’s help in the safe and swift return of the child, via SMS.

The program needed to allow end users to subscribe to the service and edit their preferences via their mobile device, and also allow law enforcement to create and issue Wireless AMBER Alerts quickly and easily whenever they deemed necessary.

Solution The Wireless AMBER Alerts program was designed with first-time text message users and the non text-savvy in mind. Users can subscribe to receive Wireless AMBER Alerts in English or French by texting AMBER to 26237, and after making a language selection via SMS, they will be directed to a mobile web page where they can choose their preferences.

A web portal was built to allow each participating law enforcement agency to have immediate access to create and send alerts, but also limit their access to the Wireless AMBER Alerts subscribers within their own region to eliminate potential user error and ensure that Wireless AMBER Alerts are always sent to the relevant audience.

Results The participation of the public is essential to the success of AMBER Alerts, and since the program was launched on May 26, 2010 more than 20,000 people across Canada have subscribed to Wireless AMBER Alerts.

Return to success stories