BRYAN, Texas — On Thursday, Oct. 26, the Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley sent out a Clear Alert for Haley Elise Hargett, 30, who was believed to be armed and headed to an unknown beach location.
This alert raised some questions as to what is a Clear Alert and what other Alerts are there? KAGS reached out to the Executive Director at the AANBV Chuck Fleeger and found out.
Amber Alert
An Amber Alert was created in honor of Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted and murdered in 1996 in Arlington, Texas, hence the name Amber Alert.
“After that, the state has also instituted some other ones [Alerts], but an Amber was created to focus for abducted children,” Fleeger said.
Silver Alert
A Silver Alert is for older citizens who are missing with perhaps a specific medical diagnosis such as dementia or Alzheimer's.
“[A Silver Alert is issued when] their medical condition and them missing puts them at risk,” Fleeger said.
Endangered/Missing Alert
The Endangered/Missing Alert that, although it does cover a large spectrum of diagnoses, primarily it is to address the phenomenon of children on the autism spectrum.
“Children who often wander and because of that are in danger,” Fleeger said.
Camo Alert
A Camo Alert is designed for military veterans who have been diagnosed with a traumatic brain injury or PTSD.
“Legislatively, however, that requires an opt-in by the veteran, so they had to sign themselves up and as of the last check, none [military veterans] in the state had signed up,” Fleeger said, “so, although the intent is good, it does need some work legislatively.”
Clear Alert
A Clear Alert, which pertains to the alert that was issued on October 26, stands for Coordinated Law Enforcement Adult Rescue.
“Primarily, it was [created] to address the phenomenon involving or cases involving abducted adults, or as in the case last night [October 26] instances where the person is missing, and they're believed to be in danger of death or bodily injury,” Fleeger said.
Beyond the meaning of the alerts
Fleeger said the AANBV will continue to put out missing persons and missing children advisories because the organization thinks it’s important that every person returns home.
“Everybody matters,” Fleeger said, “Everybody's loved and everybody is missed.”
Concerns from the Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley
One of the biggest concerns is that people turn off the Amber Alerts on their phones.
“The only alerts that come across on the cell phone are going to be for an Amber Alert and a Blue Alert,” Fleeger said.
The other alerts, Silver, Endangered/Missing or Clear those, Fleeger said no one’s phone will go off for those.
“You know, there'll be emails, they'll be news coverage, there'll be you know, tweets and Facebook posts, whatever the case may be, but it's not going over the cell phone,” Fleeger said, “and so what we really want to implore is for people to not turn that aspect off on their phone, because by them getting that alert that could save somebody's life.”