HARS - High value information Alert and Reporting System

Missing, Endangered, Exploited, Disabled, At-risk and/or Lost

There are a large number of government and private organizations who are actively engaged in the battle to Get The Bad Guy; those who prey upon the at-risk and vulnerable members of our society. Many of their efforts are directed at trying to help find and rescue those children and adults who are lost or have been victimized. VSS applauds all these efforts and commends those who have contributed their personal time and effort in this battle. These efforts are not to be diminished. However, VSS believes that far greater success for all of the efforts could be significantly improved if their efforts were integrated and united. This would be the antithesis of “divide and conquer”. Instead it would be to unite, and through the synergies and pooling of resources, there would be far more effective outcome. And YES, VSS believes that the High value information Alert and Reporting Systems, or HARS is an method to accomplish this objective.

BELOW is some information on a few of current, isolated efforts to Get The Bad Guy.

Silver Alert

Many states have Silver Alert programs. They are programs to locate cognitively impaired individuals who become lost while driving a car or lost while on foot. The Silver Alert Program helps to reduce the risk of tragedy among this growing population segment of our aging society. Cognitive impairments include Alzheimer’s disease, Dementia disease, and other related memory disorders. When a cognitively impaired person becomes lost, the local law enforcement agency is notified and information, such as the persons vehicle description and license plate number is posted on remote operated message signs along highways.

The HARS infrastructure is uniquely suited to distribute more information, to more location specific areas, in a timely manner, and provide graphical representations of the missing persons vehicle such as make, model, and color, in addition to the license plate number, thus making the missing vehicle more identifiable. Such graphical displays would be drawn from HARS databases and programming. In addition, since the HARS infrastructure includes a large number of display devices, in a greater number and variety of locations, the opportunity and probability for locating the missing person is greater increased. Also, social media is also used to facilitate greater distribution of information and many options for the information to be reported.

ICE News Release
September 12, 2013, Washington, D.C.

ICE Launches Smartphone App to Locate Predators, Rescue Children from Sexual Abuse and Exploitation.

WASHINGTON — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement's (ICE) Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) is launching a new smartphone app – the first of its kind in U.S. federal law enforcement – designed to seek the public's help with fugitive and unknown suspect child predators. All tips can be reported anonymously through the app, by phone or online, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

In addition to profiling John Doe cases like this, the new smartphone app contains photos and information about known fugitives in HSI criminal cases involving sexually abused and exploited children. "When children are being sexually abused and exploited, it's a race against the clock to rescue the child and bring the predator to justice," said ICE Acting Director John Sandweg. "These investigations are one of our highest priorities, and in today's world, we need to be technologically savvy and innovative in our approach." ICE's Office of Public Affairs developed the app with special agents from HSI’s Cyber Crimes Center (C3) and field offices across the country in order to seek the public's help with information about child predators wanted for criminal prosecution.

"The creation and launch of this application provides ICE another useful tool to reach the public," said ICE Director of Public Affairs Brian Hale. "We recognize that people receive a great deal of information on their mobile devices and we are hopeful that this app will encourage them to submit tips about suspects and to learn more about our work investigating child exploitation crimes."

The Operation Predator App enables those who download it to receive alerts about wanted predators, to share the information with friends via email and social media tools, and to provide information to HSI by calling or submitting an online tip. Additionally, the app enables users to view news about arrests and prosecutions of child predators and additional resources about ICE and its global partners in the fight against child exploitation.

Currently, the app can be downloaded from Apple's App Store or iTunes. ICE is also planning to expand compatibility to other smartphones in the near future. HSI is a founding member and current chair of the Virtual Global Taskforce, an international alliance of law enforcement agencies and private industry sector partners working together to prevent and deter online child sexual abuse.

ICE is a 21st century law enforcement agency with broad responsibilities for a number of key homeland security priorities. For more information, visit www.ICE.gov. To report suspicious activity, call 1-866-347-2423 or complete the HIS tip form here.

News Release
September 25, 2013, New York

Twitter Launches Emergency Alerts for Phones

It may be noted from the ICE news release above that one method of communications is through the use of Twitter. In addition to using Twitter with the Predator Application, Twitter has also announced that they are launching an new feature, which will allow the Twitter user to receive alert messages from various emergency agencies. Alerts are available from the American Red Cross, the Centers for Disease Control, the Federal Emergency Management Agency and other federal and local groups. Twitter notes that these special Alert Tweets, will be marked with an orange bell icon to differentiate them from regular tweets.

VSS COMMENTS: VSS believes that the public should be able to use all available methods of communications to receive important communications concerning information of public concern, including information related to “Get The Bad Guy”. It may be noted from other information in this website that the High value information Alert and Reporting System (HARS), uses social media, including Twitter in its objective to provide near-ubiquitous communications. Social media is integrated into the HARS normal operation as part of this objective.

Telephone Alert System for Missing Children

Children at risk from Predators...

An ugly reality

“A Child is Missing” program, which started in Florida, is now a national program. It has been successful and has been responsible for over 1,000 recoveries of lost children, over 29,000 cases, nationally with over 47 million alert calls made. Open 24x7 and always available to law enforcement.

How it works. A thousand telephone calls initiated within 15 minutes. In Chaska, Minnesota Police Captain Jon Kehrberg (retired in May 2013) has said, “The quicker we can get the information and get it out there and have people looking for them, the better.”