JUSTICE DEPARTMENT HONORS FRESNO CITIZEN AT NATIONAL
AMBER ALERT SYMPOSIUM

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Marilyn Roberts, Deputy Administrator for the Office of Justice Programs' (OJP) Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP), presented Victor Perez with the AMBER Alert Citizen Award at the National AMBER Alert Symposium in Phoenix, AZ.

Victor Perez, of Fresno, CA, responded to an AMBER Alert for an 8-year-old girl who was abducted in a truck from her Fresno home. When Perez saw the truck, he drove his own vehicle in front of it, stopping the driver. The perpetrator pushed the child out of his truck and sped away. The California Highway Patrol later apprehended the perpetrator. The girl was reunited with her family.

"Keeping the AMBER Alert system vital and powerful relies on the work of many partners and supporters," said Laurie O. Robinson, Assistant Attorney General for OJP and National AMBER Alter Coordinator. "Our ongoing commitment is to improve and strengthen the AMBER Alert network to protect all children and rescue them if they are abducted or missing."

This year, during the National AMBER Alert Symposium, OJP recognized individual or collective efforts to protect children from abduction and to recover missing or abducted children. Award categories are:

• AMBER Alert Coordinator of the Year
• AMBER Alert Broadcaster/Media Person of the Year
• AMBER Alert Law Enforcement Leadership Award
• AMBER Alert Citizen Award

The AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response) Alert system began in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters teamed with local police to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children. The system was created in memory of nine-year-old Amber Hagerman of Arlington, Texas, who was abducted while riding her bicycle and later found murdered. AMBER Alerts are emergency messages broadcast when a law enforcement agency determines that a child has been abducted and is in imminent danger. For more information about the AMBER Alert program, please visit https://amberalert.ojp.gov/redirect-legacy/.

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The Office of Justice Programs (OJP), headed by Assistant Attorney General Laurie O. Robinson, provides federal leadership in developing the nation?s capacity to prevent and control crime, administer justice, and assist victims. OJP has seven bureaus and offices: the Bureau of Justice Assistance; the Bureau of Justice Statistics; the National Institute of Justice; the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention; the Office for Victims of Crime; the Community Capacity Development Office, and the Office of Sex Offender Sentencing, Monitoring, Apprehending, Registering, and Tracking (SMART). More information about OJP and its components can be found at https://ojp.gov.