Cellphone users can subscribe to AMBER alerts via text message

Law enforcement and the cellular phone industry have announced the next step in the expansion of America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) alert system.

In 2002 the AMBER alert network was created to aid law enforcement in the safe return of child abduction victims. The system includes messages that interrupt broadcast programs, roadside signs by major highways and streamlined notification of law enforcement agencies to be on the lookout.

Through a partnership with the wireless telephone industry, the California Highway Patrol announced that cellphone users can "opt in" to receive AMBER notifications via text message on their cellphones. The service is free to nearly all cellphone users in California.

The instructions are now also available online in Spanish.

Most wireless subscribers can enroll by sending the word "AMBER" followed by a space and their 5-digit ZIP code in all text messages to 26237.

More than 30 wireless carriers, which serve 96 percent of all U.S. subscribers, offer the wireless AMBER alerts program. Cellphone users can also register online.

Since it was formed, the AMBER alert program in California is credited with the safe recovery of 148 children.