AMBER Alert Ghana: New dawn to safeguard children
In 1996, the murder of Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old girl who was abducted in Arlington, Texas, USA, sparked community uproar and led to the development of the AMBER Alert system.
Amber was kidnapped while riding her bike in a parking lot. A witness heard her screams, and a man was seen dragging her into a black pickup truck. Despite a massive search she was not found alive. Her body was found several days later.
Local broadcasters and law enforcement officials came together to develop a system which they named after Amber Hagerman — AMBER Alert system—to quickly disseminate information about missing children in similar situations.
The system has since been adopted and adapted by countries around the world to help locate missing children and prevent similar tragedies.
Fortunately, in a bid to strengthen child protection efforts in the country, the Ghana Police Service (GPS) has partnered Meta to launch the AMBER Alert Ghana programme to help locate abducted children by quickly disseminating information across Facebook, Instagram and Messenger (See Daily Graphic, Thursday, July 17, 2025, page 26)
The system is designed to instantly notify people in a targeted area where a child is believed to have been abducted and is at risk of being harmed. Once activated by the GPS, the alert will appear directly in the feeds of Facebook and Instagram users, and as a notification on Messenger, increasing the likelihood that someone with useful information will come forward with information.
With this launch, Ghana becomes the 36th country globally and the fifth in Africa to activate the AMBER Alert programme, after South Africa, Nigeria, Kenya and Morocco.
This is indeed good news and we agree with the Director-General of the Criminal Investigations Department (CID) of the Ghana Police Service, Commissioner of Police (COP) Lydia Yaako Donkor, that the AMBER Alert System marks a turning point in the country’s national response to child abduction cases.
The AMBER Alert System has been featured in several foreign movies, and the Daily Graphic is happy that Ghanaians will experience the system in real life regarding the rapid dissemination of information about abducted children to the public to achieve the desired results.
We are hopeful that the system will enable the GPS to quickly mobilise the public during the critical first few hours after a child goes missing. The system provides increased visibility and by leveraging social media platforms, the alerts reach a wider audience, increasing the chances of someone spotting the child or providing valuable information.
We could not agree more with COP Donkor’s statement: “But let me be clear, the effectiveness of this system will not be left to the police alone.
It will need the active cooperation of every one of us, parents, guardians, community leaders, the media and the public at large.
We all must be on the lookout, reactive and dedicated to our children’s safety.”
Community engagement is key to the AMBER Alert system because the success of the system relies heavily on community involvement, emphasising the importance of vigilance and cooperation among parents, guardians, community leaders and the public.
It is worth noting that since its establishment four years ago, the Missing Persons Unit of the GPS has managed to reunite 393 children with their families, and we are hopeful the AMBER Alert system will further boost the work of the GPS to protect the most vulnerable.
The Daily Graphic calls for more public education on the AMBER Alert system and the importance of the role of the public in responding to alerts and helping to locate missing children.
Furthermore, it is essential for all stakeholders to continuously evaluate and improve the system by regularly assessing the system’s effectiveness, identify areas of improvement and implement changes to optimise performance.
We must all support this initiative because it is crucial to create a safer environment for children and ensure that every missing child has a better chance of being saved.
