The FCC has adopted a new alert code for notifying the public about missing and endangered persons via the nation’s Emergency Alert System and Wireless Alert System. Law enforcement agencies initiate alerts within the Emergency Alert System using an event code that corresponds to certain criteria. For example, an AMBER alert, used for missing persons who are younger than 18, is initiated by a Child Abduction Emergency or “CAE” code. The Missing and Endangered Persons (“MEP”) alert code will be used in situations that do not meet the criteria for AMBER Alerts. The new code is particularly intended to help raise awareness about missing indigenous persons and black persons, who are disproportionately at risk of vanishing.
Additionally, the FCC anticipates that the alerts in the Wireless Emergency Alert system will be implemented swiftly with existing alert methodologies and will use existing Imminent Threat and Public Safety Message alert classes.
