The latest local news, weather and high school sports from the Heartland

OTTUMWA -- For our Facebook story of the day you wanted to know what the requirements are for law enforcement to issue amber alerts.

As soon as officials are notified of an abduction, police and other agencies send out as much detailed information as possible to different media outlets including KTVO.  Many people don't know the difference between issuing an amber alert and a missing persons report.

Sergeant Chad Farrington of the Ottumwa police department says there is a significant difference between the two.

“[An Amber Alert] is a situation where there's been some sort of violent act or an actual abduction where somebody without authority has taken that child,” said Farrington.  “There are other instances vs a 15-year-old that's upset with their parents and just leaves home.  That's what we would call a missing person.  Where there is no probable cause or evidence to believe that it was an involuntary nature."

It’s important to get the information out as quickly as possible because for every minute that is delayed the chances of finding the child is diminished.

Social media has helped spread information faster as well.

“It’s just another modern media outlet.  There’s so many people on Facebook, Twitter using those sort of internet activities and it’s just really helped it’s given us one more avenue in order to get that critical information out as quickly as possible.”