Indiana police issued the state's first Amber Alert Sunday with the supposed kidnapping of two children in northwest Indiana.
Although witnesses reported seeing a man put two children into the trunk of a car, the alert was canceled after police were able to identify and locate the suspect and the children, who were found unharmed in the man's home.
According to the FBI's National Crime Information Center, 85 to 90 percent of missing people reported in 2000 were juveniles, and the number of missing people has increased 468 percent since 1982.
Amber Alert uses the Emergency Alert System to inform the public about missing children cases where the victim is believed to be in danger of serious harm.
Announcements made on the EAS are sent out over radio and television stations.
Dom Caristi, associate professor of telecommunications, said the use of EAS is beneficial, but police need to be careful.
"It's a good idea as long as they don't pull the switch when they don't need to," Caristi said. "As long as they're selective about it, then there's no problem."
If police use the Amber Alert too much, though, it will create a mindset of "crying wolf," he said.
"The concerns are what will happen when they've activated it for the 10th or 15th time," Caristi said.
Though the children seemed to have suffered no harm, director of public safety Gene Burton said he felt that Amber Alert worked.
"From appearances, it seemed to work well," Burton said. "On the surface, it was effective in this case."
The Amber Alert system was created in 1996 after the kidnapping and murder of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman, according to www.amberalertindiana.com.
Indiana became one of 39 states with Amber Alert on Oct. 1, 2002.
Though the EAS is now normally used for emergency weather announcements, Caristi said that it was created during the Cold War for public defense.
"Over the past 40 years, we've seen how it can be expanded," Caristi said. "It used to be people hearing an alert needed to look out because they could be in danger ... but now we use the alert to ask you to help somebody."
Though he's not sure how else the EAS could be used to help law enforcement, Burton said other possibilities should definitely be looked into.
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