California to Launch ‘Ebony Alert’ System for Missing Black Youth After Newsom’s Approval

California will become the first state in the nation to create what’s called an Ebony Alert system beginning next year to help find black youth reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances.

Gov. Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law Oct. 8, despite having concerns that the bill was too expansive.

The criteria in the bill are expansive and do not align with such for existing alerts for children, Native Americans, and elderly missing people, the governor added.

“Our emergency alert system is dependent on people not being fatigued by it and thus ignoring it,” Mr. Newsom said in the letter.

The governor has directed the California Highway Patrol and the Governor’s Office of Emergency Services to propose reforms to the law through future budget proposals to ensure all of the state’s programs are consistent, he said.

Under the new law, the state will issue a notification for black youth who are reported missing and are at-risk, developmentally disabled, cognitively impaired, or who have been abducted.

Once enacted on Jan. 1, 2024, the system will authorize law enforcement agencies in the state to request the California Highway Patrol to issue a public alert if it is determined it would help investigators locate the missing person. Once activated, the Ebony Alert would be posted on electronic highway signs to alert the public.

The new law also encourages television, cable, online, radio, and social media outlets to cooperate by publishing the information.

The program is similar to the American’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response (AMBER) Alert system, which was created in 1996 in Texas as a legacy of 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and murdered. The system was later adopted nationally.

The “historic” bill signing will put a spotlight on black children and young women, according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP) California Hawaii State Conference, a regional chapter of the national civil rights organization that sponsored the legislation.

“Today’s bill signing represents a historic breakthrough, guaranteeing that Black children and young Black women will receive the attention and protection they need when they are reported missing,” said the chapter’s President Rick Callender.