Amber Alert Website Offline Due To Partial Government Shutdown

The official website of the AMBER Alert program has been taken offline. (AP)

Due to the government shutdown, the official website of the Amber Alert program has been taken offline.

“Due to the lapse in federal funding, this Office of Justice Programs (OJP) website is unavailable,” reads a message posted on the website.

It remains unclear when the website was taken down.

The website normally displays urgent alerts from across the country about missing children.

Despite the website being down, the North Carolina Amber Alert website is still online as of 8 a.m. Monday. While the shutdown would not impact statewide efforts to locate a missing child, it could delay national coordination efforts.

The Amber Alert program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement and broadcasters that originated in 1996 and issues urgent bulletins following cases of child abductions. In 17 years, the Amber Alert program has helped recover over 600 missing children.

According to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, 48 percent of children involved in Amber Alerts were White, 33 percent were black and 14 percent were Hispanic. From 2005 to 2011, there was a 59 percent jump in Latino children involved in Amber Alert, according to the center.

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