Police in Texas now have the ability to issue a regional alert about a missing child without having to wait for confirmation of an abduction, speeding up the delivery of potentially lifesaving information to the public.
Gov. Greg Abbott (R) signed HB3556 into law Wednesday, which allows law enforcement to quickly send out an alert about a missing child.
The alert can be sent as soon as a child is reported missing without waiting for investigators to confirm an abduction has occurred -- closing the gap on the critical first minutes or hours when a child's location is unknown.
When an Athena Alert is authorized, police will use the existing AMBER Alert system to send out a localized notification to people within 100 miles of a reported disappearance.
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The Texas DPS clarified July 6 the new alerts will still be sent under the AMBER Alert name.
"It is important for Texans to understand that the legislation did not create a new alert, and all alert messaging will continue to be referenced as an AMBER Alert," the DPS said.
The law is named after Athena Strand, a 7-year-old North Texas girl that disappeared in November 2022 and was found dead two days later. Athena's mother, Maitlyn Gandy had asked for an AMBER Alert to be issued when she found out her daughter was missing but the alert wasn't able to be sent until hours later.
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"Unfortunately, I kept getting met with the same response that she, in her case, did not meet the criteria for an AMBER Alert to be issued,” Gandy testified before a committee in April. “I don’t want someone to feel how I feel. I don’t want a mother to have to carry home an urn with her children’s ashes. I don’t want to watch another grandparent mourn the way my dad did.”
An AMBER Alert was issued for Athena about 24 hours after she disappeared, but investigators later determined her time of death occurred before the alert had been issued.
"The system failed us," Gandy said in a Facebook post. "In the 90s and early 2000s, the AMBER Alert system was brilliant. HB 3556, the 'Athena Alert' bill, is to better it."
The bill was introduced by Rep. Lynn Stucky (R-Stanger) and passed by the Texas House of Representatives on May 9 and then passed by the Texas Senate on May 24.
The law goes into effect immediately, though it's not clear how soon law enforcement will be able to start using the alert system.
TEXAS STATEWIDE ALERT PROGRAMS
Eight kinds of alerts can be issued for missing or endangered people in Texas. Below are links to articles with more information about each type of alert.
- Active Shooter Alert
- AMBER Alert & Athena Alert
- Blue Alert
- Silver Alert
- CLEAR Alert
- Camo Alert (no longer operational)
- Endangered Missing Person Alert
- Power Outage Alert
