As a data-driven company, we understand the power of information for communities. Since day one, our mission has been to connect people with reliable rides through the use of data and technology. As our footprint has grown throughout the years, so has our ability to use the Uber network in different ways.

Starting today and in partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children (NCMEC), Uber driver-partners in over 180 cities across the U.S. will begin to receive time-sensitive and critical AMBER Alerts specific to their region. When an AMBER Alert is issued, driver-partners will immediately receive geographically targeted information that may help to locate and recover a missing child.

“The AMBER Alert program’s success is built on the ability to reach the right people at the right time with these potentially life-saving messages. Uber’s presence in communities all across the country will be an incredible asset and we are proud to team up with Uber to increase the reach of the AMBER Alert program and help bring more missing children home safely.”

Robert Hoever, Director of Special Programs, Missing Children Division, National Center for Missing & Exploited Children

 

The Uber network covers 75% of the U.S. population. We are proud to harness this reach to support the AMBER Alert program, and to quickly connect drivers with information that could make all the difference for neighbors and communities. This announcement today is an extension of a pilot partnership we launched several months ago in Colorado, and we’re excited to expand it across the U.S.

ABOUT AMBER ALERTS

The AMBER Alert™ Program is a voluntary partnership between law-enforcement agencies, broadcasters, transportation agencies, and the wireless industry to activate an urgent bulletin in the most serious child-abduction cases. The goal of an AMBER Alert is to instantly galvanize the entire community to assist in the search for and the safe recovery of the child. Since the program’s start in 1996, 772 children have been successfully recovered specifically because of an AMBER Alert.

AMBER Alerts are issued by law enforcement and distributed through broadcasters and transportation agencies. They are also sent to the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, which redistributes the alerts, through the AMBER Alert Secondary Distribution Program, to a network of companies and organizations that use all available technology to expand the reach of the Alerts. These broadcasts let law enforcement use the eyes and ears of the public to help quickly locate an abducted child. The U.S. Department of Justice coordinates the AMBER Alert program on a national basis.