Indian Hills' Digital Forensics club works to raise Amber Alert awareness.
/ KTVO's Kate Allt
OTTUMWA, IOWA -- When children go missing, Amber Alerts are typically the fastest way to spread the word.
New technology can now make word travel even faster, with Amber Alert updates sent straight to your cell phone. Tuesday morning, members of Indian Hills Community College's Digital Forensics Club set up in the North Hy-Vee in Ottumwa to help sign up anyone who is interested in getting the text alerts.
"Today we are setting up Amber Alerts for people who want to receive them on their cell phones and so if a kid goes missing or something, they send you information on your phone ,so that you can get maybe a description of the child or maybe the suspect and you can actually help find some kids," said Chris Wright, President of the Digital Forensics Club.
The club members assist local law enforcement with finding evidence related to anything digital. Wright said they have learned when it comes to Amber Alerts, quicker is always better, and word of mouth is always useful.
"We figured the best is to get out there so we get to talk to people," he said. "Because some people may be leery to what it is, because some people might not know what it is. They may have heard of it on the news, but they don't know exactly what it is. So we figure, since we help with a lot of law enforcement, we figured we'd go out there and get our name out there, get our club out there and then help out a little bit. Even if we find two kids, that's more than what would have been saved."
If you are interested in signing up for the alerts, you can do so through the website, www.wirelessamberalerts.org, or text AMBER followed by your zip code to 26237.
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