High-Tech Good Samaritans

A high-tech fleet of OnStar good Samaritans is adding 2.5 million pairs of eyes to the search for a missing child when the AMBER Alert is sounded. GM's subsidiary OnStar joined up with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC) to put its GPS satellite and wireless technologies and the expertise of its call center advisors on the AMBER Alert network. This unique collaboration marks the first time that an in-vehicle safety communications system using GPS satellite technology and private citizens has teamed up to help NCMEC locate missing children.

Seconds Matter
The AMBER Plan alerts law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters when a serious child-abduction occurs. Radio stations interrupt programming to issue the alert in the same way they interrupt programming to announce severe weather emergencies. The AMBER Plan is named after 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, a little girl who was kidnapped while riding her bicycle in Arlington, Texas, and brutally murdered. Since 1998, when the program began, 130 children have been recovered. Some states also utilize electronic highway billboards, which usually carry traffic data, to display information about the child, abductor or suspected vehicle that drivers might look for on highways.


"Clearly, this initiative is a natural extension of OnStar's in-vehicle safety and security services," said OnStar President Chet Huber. "When a child is missing, every second counts to increase the likelihood of a safe return. The ability to quickly share critical information with public safety officials can be the difference between a child found and a tragedy."

Good Sams
OnStar gets about 8,000 emergency assistance calls a month from subscribers, and those calls include 3,000 Good Samaritan calls for medical or motor vehicle emergencies involving other motorists. Heeding the altruistic tendencies of its members, GM established a Good Samaritan program that encourages members to use the OnStar system to summon help in any emergency situation on behalf of others in need. Subscribers simply push the "red" emergency button located on the OnStar console in their vehicle. OnStar's call centers, staffed 24 hours a day, 365 days a year, are available to subscribers and the nation's 6,000 emergency 911 centers in all 50 states and every Canadian province. The Good Samaritan calls are strictly voluntary. In cases of serious emergency situations, OnStar advisors do not encourage subscribers to follow, confront or otherwise endanger themselves.


XM Satellite Radio will also encourage listeners who are driving OnStar-equipped vehicles to press the red emergency button to report information related to an AMBER Alert sighting in their area. "XM is proud to support NCMEC and OnStar in providing an important public service that can positively impact the lives of children nationwide," said XM President and CEO Hugh Panero. XM provides AMBER Alerts and other important public safety and homeland security notifications on air and printed on the radio display.