KU News Release

Media to join law enforcement personnel for AMBER Alert training

HUTCHINSON — Members of Kansas Attorney General Steven Six’s AMBER Alert Task Force are teaming with the University of Kansas to deliver free AMBER Alert training to law enforcement and media employees at sites across Kansas.

With the help of the Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, a division of KU Continuing Education, participants in the new AMBER Alert Train-the-Trainer program will receive information about the alert system that they can then provide to their communities.

Some of the information to be highlighted during the four-hour course includes the criteria that must be met before an alert can be issued, how the Kansas Bureau of Investigation issues alerts, secondary alerts issued if the AMBER criteria is not met and how victim advocates can be used during alerts.

Also planned is a special presentation covering the Florida-based “A Child is Missing” alert system, which can be used as a secondary response if the criteria for an AMBER alert is not met.

The AMBER Alert program is a voluntary partnership between law enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies and the wireless industry to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize an entire community to assist in the search for and safe recovery of a child.

The Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center was established in 1968 as the headquarters for all law enforcement training in Kansas. The center is located in Hutchinson and trains a majority of municipal, county and state law enforcement officers in Kansas.

Registration applications for the AMBER Alert Train-the-Trainer program can be downloaded at www.continuinged.ku.edu/kletc/amber.

Program schedule is below. All training sessions are from 8 a.m. to noon or 1 to 5 p.m.

— Thursday, Sept. 11, Kansas Law Enforcement Training Center, Learning Center Classroom B, 11009 S. Hornet Road, Hutchinson

— Thursday, Sept. 18, Topeka Police Department, Classroom A, 360 S. Kansas Ave.

— Friday, Sept. 19, Olathe Fire Department, Olathe Rooms 2 & 3, 1225 S Hamilton Circle

— Tuesday, Sept. 30, Concordia City Hall, 701 Washington St.

—Thursday, Oct. 2, Independence (Kan.) Memorial Hall, 401 N. Pennsylvania Ave.

-30-

The University of Kansas is a major comprehensive research and teaching university. University Relations is the central public relations office for KU's Lawrence campus.