Utah Department of Public Safety

AMBER Alert Test Planned for Friday, August 26, 2016

Utah’s AMBER Alert Plan will be tested on August 26, 2016, the day Rachael Runyan was abducted from Sunset Utah, the 34 anniversary.

The Utah Department of Public Safety Communications will be testing the LEAP (Law Enforcement Alerting Portal) this system is used as an additional notification during an AMBER Alert. This will be the 28th test of the Utah AMBER Alert Plan.

“We need as many people as possible to get involved each time the AMBER Alert is activated,” says Utah Department of Public Safety Commissioner Keith Squires. “We at DPS are committed to the Amber Alert program and grateful for the dedicated work that program coordinator Gina McNeil puts forth to insure these children are found safely and brought home to their families”. The exact time of the test is not given but radio stations should make an announcement when the test is initiated. TV stations are asked to announce and/or run a crawl about the test at the top of the screen. All media outlets are encouraged to post the tests on their web sites.

Utah has issued 43 AMBER Alerts since the plan was started on April 2, 2002.  Most children were recovered safely and the alerts were directly responsible for bringing 48 children back home.