Amber has arrived in Kansas and is coming soon to a county near you.

A statewide child kidnapping alert system went into effect in Kansas last week, and the Douglas County Sheriff’s Office will set up a local Amber Alert.

“We hope we never have to use it,” Kansas Bureau of Investigation agent Kyle Smith said. “We hope it’s a colossal waste of time.”

In Douglas County, a plan for an Amber Alert has been prepared by sheriff’s officers and is awaiting final approval by Sheriff Rick Trapp, Lt. Ken Massey said.

“If we had a situation, we could do it today,” Massey said.

Lawrence Police also are studying procedures for enacting an Amber Alert, Sgt. Mike Pattrick said.

Earlier this year, the Kansas Attorney General’s Office established a task force of law enforcement officers, broadcast media and emergency management representatives to develop what is officially called the statewide Amber Plan. It is an acronym for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response.

States and local communities have been setting up Amber Alert systems after the 1996 kidnapping of a young girl named Amber Hagerman in the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

The state plan establishes criteria and procedures for enacting an alert when a child is kidnapped. Of key importance is the child’s age (17 or younger) or whether there is a mental or physical handicap.

There also must be reason to suspect the child is under immediate threat of great bodily harm.

City or county law enforcement agencies would inform the KBI when they have a kidnapping.

The KBI would notify not only law enforcement agencies but also the media. Descriptions of the victim, suspect, vehicles and other information would be released.

KBI agents would take tips from the public using a department number and the Kansas hot line, 1-800-KS-CRIME. In addition, a Web site has been set up for the public and the media to access updated information.

The Web site is ksamber.org.

Douglas County will follow similar procedures. The KBI and local media would be informed. Sheriff’s deputies would take tips over a phone line, in addition to the 843-TIPS hotline, Massey said.

Law enforcement agencies always have been quick to notify one another about major crime incidents, Massey said. The main difference with Amber Alerts will be adding the participation of the public quicker than in the past.

“What’s been done is nothing to the extent this will be,” Massey said.

The decision to call an alert would be made by the sheriff, undersheriff or a captain, Massey said. It would not be called in cases of routine runaways or parental custody disputes.

“There will be some tough decisions that have to be made,” Massey said. “You don’t want to ‘cry wolf’ too many times.”

Jefferson County has had an Amber Alert system in place since January 2000. Only once has an alert been issued, Sheriff’s Capt. Tim Byers said.

That was a few months after it was organized when some people thought they saw a 4-year-old girl kidnapped by strangers in a car, Byers said. Information was released to radio and television stations in Lawrence, Topeka, Kansas City, Atchison and Hiawatha.

The car the girl was thought to be in was stopped after information about its location was passed on to Douglas County officers, Byers said.

The girl was not there. It turned out she was sleeping under a neighbor’s bed.

“But it worked really well,” Byers said of the alert. “People called us about possible sightings, and we did find the car.”