WASHINGTON, D.C.—As expected, the Federal Communications Commission voted at its August Open Meeting to establish a new alert code for delivering critical alert messages to the public over television, radio, and wireless phones that will help save missing and endangered persons. The vote was unanimous.
In announcing the vote, the FCC noted that in 2023, more than 188,000 people went missing who fall outside of the criteria for AMBER Alerts. The new alert code adopted on August 7 will be particularly beneficial to Tribal communities, where American Indians and Alaska Natives are at a disproportionate risk of violence, murder, or vanishing.
