Waze, Google’s real-time crowdsourced navigation app powered by the world’s largest community of drivers, today announced an integration with AMBER Alert Europe to display urgent information about missing and endangered children, provided by law enforcement and other police mandated organizations. The integration will help AMBER Alert Europe amplify its presence within 20 European countries, including France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, Spain, Netherlands and more.
Founded in March 2013, the ultimate goal of AMBER Alert Europe is to improve the protection of endangered and missing children. This is achieved by providing training and cross border coordination to law enforcement, and connecting citizens to law enforcement to aid in the search for missing or abducted children. To protect the privacy of children and their families at all times, AMBER Alert Europe ensures that any information shared is in cooperation with European Privacy Regulations. Currently, 14 countries have AMBER alert systems in place; the organization will now reach six additional countries with the aid of the free Waze mobile platform.
As part of its ongoing mission to promote citizen safety around the world, Waze will alert European citizens in relevant geographic areas with one-time in-app notifications. AMBER Alert Europe distributes two types of alerts: National AMBER Alerts, when a child’s life is in imminent danger; and Endangered Children Alerts, when a child is at serious risk and has been missing for less than one month. National AMBER Alerts will appear for all drivers in the country of origin, while the more geographically-specific Endangered Child Alerts will be displayed to drivers in a smaller, relevant local area. Drivers who have Waze open and are stopped for more than 10 seconds will see a pop-up banner displaying any key information available, such as the child’s photo, the make and model of the vehicle in question and a link to more information online.
Frank Hoen, President of AMBER Alert Europe, is very delighted about the cooperation with Waze. “Every pair of eyes that is on the lookout for a missing child in Europe increases the chances of the child being found alive and well. We hope other organizations will follow Waze’s example and encourage more citizens to be on the lookout.”
“Waze was built on the premise that we are all in this together,” said Di-Ann Eisnor, Head of Growth at Waze. “We’re passionate about prioritizing driver safety, awareness and community support. With millions of Wazers active across Europe every month, we can make a real impact in the work still needed to protect and ensure the safety of children all over the world.”
The child in the picture is not missing.
