KIDNAPPINGS PROMPT SENATE TO PUSH ALERT-SYSTEM BILL.

Byline: Staff and Wire Services

SACRAMENTO - Responding to recent kidnappings, a Senate committee voted Tuesday to require that all local law enforcement agencies notify the public over the Emergency Alert System when a child is abducted.

The Senate Public Safety Committee voted 4-0 to require law enforcement agencies that are informed of the abduction of a child 17 years of age or younger, or an individual with a proven mental or physical disability, to request that the Emergency Alert System be activated. It designates the California Highway Patrol as the lead law enforcement agency.

Under the bill by Assemblyman George Runner, R-Lancaster, a local enforcement agency will send out a report through Emergency Digital Information Services, which is a fax or e-mail sent to participating news organizations. Following that, the agency can turn the work over to the CHP or send out the EAS, a series of broadcast tones and information about the kidnapping to broadcast stations. Then an AMBER Alert will be issued, sending information to highway signs across the state.

When two Antelope Valley teenagers were taken from a popular hangout early Thursday, emergency alerts were not issued until hours later, said Runner.

``After the (Elizabeth) Smart abduction in Utah, and then Samantha Runnion, I knew this was in California's best interest,'' Runner said. ``Little did I know that a few days later, the AMBER Alert would actually be used to save two young ladies from my own district.''

The Emergency Alert System is modeled after the AMBER Alert, which was named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old Texas girl who was kidnapped in 1996 and later found dead.

The EAS, once called the Emergency Broadcast System and created to warn Americans of an impending nuclear attack, sends out a tone over radio airwaves, alerting the public that a child has been taken. Broadcasters will also be given information about the child and the abductor.

The AMBER Alert was used for the first time last week for the Antelope Valley girls, when more than 500 electronic freeway signs throughout California flashed the abduction warning to motorists who traditionally use the signs for traffic alerts.

Kim Swartz, who is the co-founder of the Amber Foundation for Missing Children and has a daughter named Amber who was kidnapped in 1988 in California, told the committee Tuesday that the system could have saved her daughter if it had been used in time.

``This system would have saved my daughter,'' Swartz said, ``but it was 24 hours before my daughter made it into the media.''

Runner introduced his proposal last year and it passed the Assembly but was stalled in the Senate. But following last week's kidnapping and the recent kidnapping and killing of 5-year-old Samantha Runnion of Stanton, it regained momentum in the Senate. A spokesman for Gov. Gray Davis said the governor supports the bill.

``There's a lot of attention out there. Everybody likes this bill,'' Runner said after the vote. ``I'm glad to see it moving swiftly.''

The governor had wanted the state Office of Emergency Services to handle the alerts, but Runner said that office ``badly mishandled'' that responsibility.

The bill requires a law enforcement agency to determine whether a victim is in imminent danger and whether there is enough available information for the public to use to help find the missing person.

AB 415 will now be heard in the Senate Appropriations Committee and then go to a floor vote of the Senate. The bill will need to go back to the Assembly for a concurrence vote on amendments. Runner hopes the bill can be on the governor's desk by mid-September.