A. The state police shall develop and implement an AMBER alert notification plan for the purpose of disseminating, as rapidly as possible, information about a child abduction so that law enforcement agencies and citizens throughout the state may be aware and vigilant. The plan shall:

(1) provide a procedure for notifying the lead station by the authorized requester that an AMBER alert has been declared. The procedure shall include codes for use by the authorized requester in communicating with the lead station to prevent false alerts;

(2) provide a procedure in which other state and private print, radio, television or other media may alert the members of the public of the abduction;

(3) include a procedure for notifying the department of information technology that an AMBER alert has been declared. The department of information technology shall immediately transmit the notification and related information to all state field operations employees so that they may be aware and vigilant in the course of their regular activities;

(4) include a procedure for notifying a representative of each cellular service company and paging service company operating in New Mexico so that a text message may be sent to the company's customers at no additional expense to the recipient or to any service that accepts the information from the authorized requester and delivers it to the cellular service or paging service company;

(5) include a procedure for notifying all local and federal law enforcement agencies that an AMBER alert has been declared; and

(6) provide for dissemination of information about a child or a child's abductor to the lead station, the department of information technology and local law enforcement agencies when an AMBER alert has been declared.

B. The state police shall distribute the AMBER alert notification plan to all local law enforcement agencies and provide such training and other assistance as is necessary to ensure that the plan can be properly implemented.

C. The authorized requester may declare an AMBER alert when the requester has reason to believe that:

(1) a child under the age of eighteen has been abducted;

(2) the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily harm or death; and

(3) there is specific information available about the child or the child's abductor that may assist in an expedient and successful end to the abduction.

D. Once an AMBER alert has been declared, only the authorized requester may terminate the AMBER alert.

History: Laws 2003, ch. 93, § 3; 2005, ch. 142, § 1; 2007, ch. 290, § 24; 2013, ch. 51, § 1.

The 2013 amendment, effective June 14, 2013, expanded the reasons for declaring an AMBER alert to include abduction by a person related to the child; and in Paragraph (1) of Subsection C, after "has been abducted", deleted "by an unrelated person".

The 2007 amendment, effective July 1, 2007, required the AMBER alert notification plan to provide for notification to and transmission of information by the department of information technology.

The 2005 amendment, effective July 1, 2005, added Subsection A(4) to require that the AMBER notification plan include a procedure for notifying each cellular and paging service company in New Mexico so that a message may be sent to the company's customers at no additional expense to the person who accepts the information and delivers it to the cellular or paging service company.