Amber Alert Poll Results Reveal a High Level of Public Interest - Less than 7% Want to "Keep it Local"

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, May 13, 2004
Contact: Linda Spagnoli
Director of Communications
772-971-4816
ljs(at)codeamber.org

Mandeville, LA - In a show of heightened public interest in the Amber Alert System, over 3,300 participants overwhelmingly expressed their desire to receive nationwide notification of Amber Alerts. Less than 7% of those responding wanted to see Amber Alerts only for their state, city or town. The majority, 57.51%, wants to see all the Amber Alerts issued in the US and Canada. Poll results can be seen, and you can vote, at www.codeamber.net.

Code Amber founder, Bryant Harper, expected the results to show a nationwide interest. "The public has been asking for a nationwide Amber Alert system since its creation over 7 years ago. The fact that this poll tells us that over 92% of those responding want to be notified even if the Amber Alert extends beyond their local area should signal law enforcement and broadcasters that more work needs to be done."

Code Amber provides nationwide coverage of Amber Alert notification via a downloadable Java Script news ticker which is broadcast to over 140,000 web sites and is displayed over one million times a day. Government and media outlets also have access to an XML feed. The XML feed is received by network newsrooms and processed according to individual network procedures. Both the Java Script ticker and XML feed are updated in real time as new information is received from law enforcement. Code Amber is partnered with all the networks in a reciprocal information exchange to provide maximum coverage and saturation during an Amber Alert.

Two separate tickers are maintained for the US and Canada, however when an Amber Alert occurs near the border, both are activated.

About Code Amber: Code Amber LLC is a Louisiana Corporation that operates as a public service fully supported by its parent company, BigHits.com in addition to corporate and private contributions. It delivers Amber Alert notification over various platforms to media, law enforcement and the public at no cost. Founded in 2002, as a means to enhance the flow of information during an Amber Alert, Code Amber is now the premiere reporting entity to the Internet community, consistently appearing at the top of the major search engines.