FCC Chairwoman Proposes New Alert Code

July 17, 2024 – Federal Communications Commission Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel announced on Monday that the agency will vote on her proposal to adopt a new event code to alert the public about missing or endangered individuals of all ages who don’t qualify for AMBER or Ashanti Alerts at the August Open Meeting.

The proposed event code, “MEP Alert,” aims to assist law enforcement in broadcasting critical alerts through TV and radio to recover missing and endangered individuals, notably benefiting Tribal communities where American Indian and Alaska Native people face a disproportionate risk of violence, she said.

“Today we move forward with establishing a ‘Missing and Endangered Persons’ alert code to close this gap. This will help ensure no person who is missing, at risk of being overlooked and in danger is left behind. With this new code we can save lives,” said Rosenworcel.

She highlighted the success of AMBER Alerts in recovering abducted children and emphasized the need for a similar code in the Emergency Alert System for other missing and endangered persons, “particularly the thousands of missing Native and Indigenous women who have disappeared from their homes never to be seen again.” 

The new code will also facilitate the collection of comprehensive data on missing and endangered Indigenous person cases in accordance with Savanna’s Act, a bipartisan effort to improve the federal response to missing or murdered Indigenous persons.

The FCC instated a rule in April 2023 that ensures alerts are sent out in the 13 most common languages spoken in the country. Other proposals include allowing alerts to feature a small image of a missing child during an AMBER Alert, including links to locations of emergency situations, enabling alerting authorities to send messages without the blaring sound, and giving subscribers the option to receive alerts with sound or just phone vibrations.