New York implements Amber Alert

NEW YORK (CNN) -- Gov. George Pataki announced Monday that New York will become the 26th state in the nation to create a multi-agency Amber Alert system to aid in the search for abducted children.

The program coordinates law enforcement, television and radio outlets and state agencies. The system was named after a missing child in Texas.

EXTRA INFORMATION • Gallery: Recent missing youngster cases  • The Amber Alert system     The Amber Alert A child abduction response system Uses radio, television, roadside electronic billboards and emergency broadcast systems to disseminate information about kidnapping suspects and victims soon after the crime is committed Solicits aid from the public to look for victims Used for children younger than 18 Employed when serious harm or death possible Named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, who was kidnapped and killed in 1996 Source: Klaas Kids Foundation

Pataki told reporters at an elementary school in Midtown that an 18-county pilot program set up last February would be extended to blanket the state.

Pataki said 519 highway message signs and scrolling lottery message boards will be used to display information about abducted children.

The Amber Alert system was created in response to the murder of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, in 1996. She was later killed.

Texas issued its first statewide alert last month when 1-month-old Nancy Crystal Chavez was abducted from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Abilene. The girl was found 130 miles away after a 24-hour search.

California implemented the Amber Alert system on July 24, following the abduction and murder of Samantha Runnion.

Since then, the system was credited for helping find a number of missing children -- including two Los Angeles County teens kidnapped at gunpoint six days after the system was implemented.

Police located the suspect after receiving tips from the public, and the girls were rescued -- just minutes before he planned to kill them, authorities believe. The suspect was shot and killed by police.

Amber Alerts also were issued for 4-year-old Jessica Cortez, who was abducted from a Los Angeles park and was found 48 hours later when a woman brought her to a medical clinic, and for 10-year-old Nichole Taylor Timmons, who was taken from her Riverside, California, home and found safe in Nevada.