OnStar Extends Partnership with NCMEC
NCMEC News August 23, 2007 OnStar Extends Partnership with NCMEC Pioneer and industry leader for in vehicle safety, security and communication services takes another step to improve efforts to locate missing children Today OnStar announced that its partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® will be expanded to provide geographically targeted AMBER Alert messages to OnStar subscribers. In addition to this technological advancement, OnStar will contribute $300,000 to NCMEC to support Team Adam, a dedicated group of retired law enforcement officials with expertise in missing children cases. PRESS RELEASE ONSTAR EXTENDS PARTNERSHIP WITH THE NATIONAL CENTER FOR MISSING & EXPLOITED CHILDREN Pioneer and industry leader for in vehicle safety, security and communication services takes another step to improve efforts to locate missing children Detroit and Washington D.C. – August 23, 2007 – Today OnStar announced that its partnership with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® (NCMEC) will be expanded to provide geographically targeted AMBER Alert messages to OnStar subscribers. In addition to this technological advancement, OnStar will contribute $300,000 to NCMEC to support Team Adam, a dedicated group of retired law enforcement officials with expertise in missing children cases. Starting this month, OnStar will integrate AMBER Alert data into its call center’s geographical mapping system so that the Alerts are immediately available to OnStar advisors when a subscriber calls in from an affected area. If the subscriber is in the area of an AMBER Alert, the OnStar advisor will notify them of the situation and ask the subscriber if they would like additional information to help identify the abducted child. With this advancement, OnStar’s advisor team can become more proactive in helping to make subscribers aware of AMBER Alerts in their specific area. “When a child is abducted, every second counts to increase the likelihood of a safe return,” said OnStar President Chet Huber. “Integrating geographical targeting into our technology further reinforces OnStar’s ongoing commitment to improve our capabilities to keep families – and in this case, children -- safe and secure.” "Rapid response is vital in abduction cases, and the widespread use of the AMBER Alert network makes it the nation's most powerful tool for bringing abducted children home,” said Regina B. Schofield, Assistant Attorney General for the Office of Justice Programs and the National AMBER Alert coordinator. “I applaud the efforts of OnStar and NCMEC to alert the public and raise awareness of AMBER Alerts.” In addition to this enhancement, OnStar will contribute a total of $300,000 to support the efforts of Team Adam over the next three years. This group of consultants, who have related investigative experience and have received specialized training in missing and abducted children cases, is deployed for rapid on-site response. They provide support in numerous high profile cases, often providing local law enforcement with critical investigative and technical assistance needed to address the crisis. OnStar’s contribution funds critical emergency supply and equipment needs, urgent state-of-the-art tools, and short-term specialized support for the most difficult and challenging cases. Team Adam has been deployed 287 times in 43 states for a total of 332 missing children; out of which 307 have been safely recovered. In addition to assisting law enforcement, Team Adam consultants also provide an added service by ensuring that victim families receive the appropriate help they need to cope during and after a crisis. Team Adam was named after Adam Walsh, the abducted and murdered son of NCMEC co-founders, Revé and John Walsh. John is also widely known for his role as host of the television program “America’s Most Wanted.” Team Adam receives its funding through private donations and a grant from the Department of Justice Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. “It is important to keep in mind that just one lead can result in finding a child,” said Ernie Allen, president and CEO of NCMEC. “OnStar’s advanced technology will give millions of citizens the power to help reunite families, and its support of Team Adam ensures that families of missing children receive the assistance that they desperately need.” General Motors’ OnStar began its partnership with NCMEC in April 2004. Since then, OnStar subscribers have reported emergency information related to an AMBER Alert or a lost child by pressing the red OnStar emergency button in their vehicles. Immediately, the subscribers are connected with OnStar emergency services advisors who expedite the calls to emergency dispatchers. Each month, OnStar receives about 9,600 emergency services calls, which includes 6,000 Good Samaritan calls for events such as medical emergencies, crashes involving other motorists and calls about AMBER Alerts. About GM General Motors Corp. (NYSE: GM), the world’s largest automaker, has been the annual global industry sales leader for 76 years. Founded in 1908, GM today employs about 280,000 people around the world. With global headquarters in Detroit, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 33 countries. In 2006, nearly 9.1 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under the following brands: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, GM Daewoo, Holden, HUMMER, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. GM’s OnStar subsidiary is the industry leader in vehicle safety, security and information services. More information on GM can be found at www.gm.com. About OnStar by GM OnStar, a wholly-owned subsidiary of General Motors, is the leading provider of in-vehicle safety, security and communication services. OnStar is available on more than 50 MY 2007 GM models, which come with one year of OnStar service. One year of OnStar will become standard on nearly all GM retail vehicles in the United States and Canada by the end of 2007. OnStar provides services to more than 5 million subscribers in the U.S. and Canada. More information about OnStar can be found at www.onstar.com. For MY 2007, General Motors is offering Advanced Automotive Crash Notification (AACN) on more than 2 million vehicles in the U.S. and Canada. This service is available on more than 40 GM vehicles – up more than 20 percent from MY 2006 – including a broad range of OnStar-equipped vehicles ranging from small sedans like the Chevy Cobalt to sport utility and luxury vehicles. OnStar receives approximately 1,200 airbag deployment notifications and 700 AACN calls each month. About Amber Alert The AMBER Alert program activates urgent bulletins in the most serious child abduction cases. To date, more than 330 children have been recovered since the program began in 1996. In 2003, President George W. Bush signed the PROTECT Act, which established a national AMBER Alert Coordinator within the U.S. Department of Justice. For more information about the national AMBER Alert program, please visit www.amberalert.gov. About the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children NCMEC is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization that works in cooperation with the U.S. Department of Justice's Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention. NCMEC's congressionally mandated CyberTipline, a reporting mechanism for child sexual exploitation, has handled more than 494,000 leads. Since its establishment in 1984, NCMEC has assisted law enforcement with more than 133,000 missing child cases, resulting in the recovery of more than 115,700 children. For more information about NCMEC, call its toll-free, 24-hour hotline at 1-800-THE-LOST or visit its web site at www.missingkids.com. # # # Contact: Jocelyn Allen 313.665.2790 office 313.378.8668 cell jocelyn.allen@onstar.com Michelle Stoutermire 313.667.8128 office 248.515.1742 cell michelle.stoutermire@onstar.com NCMEC Communications Department 703.837.6111 media@ncmec.org http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/NewsEventServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=3356