FCC Adopts New Alert Code for Missing & Endangered Persons

The Federal Communications Commission voted to establish a new alert code to help save missing and endangered persons by delivering critical alert messages to the public over television, radio, and wireless phones. In 2023, more than 188,000 people went missing who fall outside of the criteria for AMBER Alerts. The new alert code will be particularly beneficial to Tribal communities, where American Indians and Alaska Natives are at a disproportionate risk of violence, murder, or vanishing. The new missing and endangered persons alerts within the nation’s Emergency Alert System and Wireless Emergency Alert system will help law enforcement agencies galvanize public attention to missing and endangered people of all ages who do not qualify for AMBER Alerts, including those who meet the criteria for Ashanti Alerts.