A new AMBER Alert video will help Utah law enforcement train for something they hope will never happen: a child abduction.
The video, which was produced jointly by the Utah Attorney General's Office and KSTU Fox 13 television, debuted last week at the 17th Annual Crime Victims' Conference in Sandy. The 11-minute tape is being distributed among Utah law enforcement agencies and should help officers prepare to make decisions quickly at a time when seconds count, Attorney General Mark Shurtleff said.
The video illustrates how Utah police first used the AMBER Alert after the June 2002 abduction of Elizabeth Smart and how a Utah Highway Patrol trooper used alert information to recover 11-year-old Cindy Bruno of Minnesota within 45 minutes of its distribution.
Ed Smart, father of Elizabeth Smart, and Elaine Runyan-Simmons, whose daughter Rachael Runyan was kidnapped from a Sunset park in 1982, both appear in the video. John Walsh, host of the "America's Most Wanted" crime information television show also appears.
The public can see the video or access additional information about the AMBER Alert at www.attorneygeneral.utah.gov.