California’s Ebony Alert System, a version of the Amber Alert specifically designed to highlight missing youths and women of color, recently marked one year in use. In that time, over two dozen people have been recovered through the use of Ebony Alerts. Advocates for the system and critics of the way it currently operates say this number could have been higher with more knowledge and willingness on the part of authorities.
Ebony Alerts help find 27 people in 2024
California State Sen. Steven Bradford proposed the new system last year, specifying that it would empower law enforcement in California to issue alerts, similar to Amber Alerts, for missing Black youths and women ages 12 to 25, a demographic that is vulnerable to disappearance but often ignored by officials and news reports. California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the system into law last October, empowering the California Highway Patrol to issue the alerts. Since going into effect at the beginning of 2024, 31 Ebony Alerts have been issued, resulting in 27 recoveries.
The Ebony Alert has been issued 31 times this year, and 27 people have been found.
Advocates say it can be a strong tool but police aren't fully trained and families of missing children still have to jump through hoops for the system to work. https://t.co/lEesSFvfxq
— NBC News (@NBCNews) October 10, 2024
Lack of knowledge, will by police hamper system’s use
Debate continues about the performance of the system so far. While advocates such as Bradford are pointing toward the first year of the Ebony Alert system as a success, others are saying that more can be done. Currently, the system covers Black women and youths ages 12 to 25 who go missing and have a documented mental or physical disability. NBC News and the nonprofit Dock Ellis Foundation analyzed California state data and identified at least 134 minors who went missing in California and could have qualified for Ebony Alerts, yet only 31 people — 23 percent — had alerts issued on their behalf. Families of missing children have reported that many cops and even entire police stations were unaware of the system, and others were slow or unwilling to issue the alerts, dismissing the urgency of finding the missing Black children.
Other states look to follow California’s example
Even as debate about California’s Ebony Alert system continues, other states have explored adopting their own versions of the program. Massachusetts lawmakers introduced a bill earlier this year that would create both an Ebony Alert system and “an executive office of missing and murdered Black women and girls to coordinate efforts to disrupt systemic harms that drive disproportionate harm to Black women and girls.” The Pennsylvania House Committee on Children and Youth recently advanced a bill to create an Ebony Alert system, although some legislators and police agencies oppose the measure, arguing that it would interfere with other programs such as the Amber Alert. Alabama, Missouri and New York are also reportedly considering implementing their own Ebony Alert systems.
With interest in this program growing across the country, California’s first-in-the-nation system will continue to serve as an important model and test case for the Ebony Alert. So far, the system has made a real difference in the lives of a number of families, even as it has significant room to improve.
