History
September 2001 : Local law enforcement agencies meet to discuss need for unified policies/procedures for dealing with missing/abducted children
January 2002 : Representatives of the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) provide model policy/procedures for dealing with missing/abducted children and provide training for first responders.
Spring 2002 : Model policy approved and adopted by law enforcement agencies throughout Brazos County.
September 2002 : Gov Perry creates statewide Amber Alert Network administered through Department of Public Safety Division of Emergency Management.
Fall/Winter 2002 : Representatives from law enforcement agencies throughout 7 county region of the Brazos Valley meet to prepare localized plan to supplement state Amber Alert Network.
Spring 2003 : Meetings between law enforcement agencies, local media representatives and Brazos Valley Council of Governments (BVCOG) finalize proposed plan for Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley (AANBV).
June 2003 : Participating law enforcement agencies sign participation agreement and representative board elected for AANBV.
Summer 2007 : AANBV website created as means of public awareness/education.
September 2007 : AANBV partners with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) to add secondary distribution of Amber Alerts and Wireless Amber Alerts (WEA) to the regional plan.
Summer 2008 : AANBV begins process of creating Child Abduction Response Team (CART) for region.
Spring 2009 : AANBV designates steering committee to work on project of formation of Brazos Valley Child Abduction Response Team (BVCART).
June 2009 : BVCART steering committee members attend basic CART training.
Fall 2009 : AANBV distributes Memorandum of Understanding to 27 law enforcement agencies throughout Brazos Valley region.
January 2010 : Formal announce the creation of the Brazos Valley Child Abduction Response Team (BVCART).
February 2010 : Initial 2-day training for BVCART members.
September 2010 : BVCART Tabletop Exercise and Case Study.
May 2011 : BVCART conducts mock child abduction exercise in Caldwell, Burleson County, TX.
June 2011 : AANBV launces Facebook page (www.facebook.com/aanbvtx) to assist with public notification efforts.
September 2011 : On site assessment of BVCART by DOJ & AMBER Alert Training and Technical Assistance Program, Office of Justice Programs, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Programs. Process involves mock child abduction field exercise in College Station, Brazos County, TX.
May 2012 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise and case study.
December 2013 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise.
December 2014 : BVCART conducts training for new members.
December 2014: AANBV launces Twitter page (www.twitter.com/aanbvtx) to assist with public notification efforts.
December 2014 : BVCART conducts mock child abduction field exercise in Madisonville, Madison County, TX.
February 2016 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise.
December 2016 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise.
December 2017 : BVCART conducts mock child abduction field exercise in Navasota, Grimes County, TX.
July 2018 : AANBV conducts first strategic planning retreat to develop 3 to 5 Year Strategic Plan for organization. Future plans include movement to be able to provide full time services, obtaining office space, hiring of first employee, re-writing of bylaws, Board of Directors expansion and development of plan for fundraising and funding.
October 2018 : BVCART deploys in support of the College Station Police Department during the investigation of the reported disappearance of 1 year old Hazana Anderson.
December 2018 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise and case study.
Summer 2019 : BVCART conducts multiple training sessions for new members.
Fall 2019: AANBV implements new by-laws allowing expansion of Board of Directors as well as hiring of employee(s) in the future.
October 2019 : AANBV participates in the first ever day of giving, “Brazos Valley Gives”, sponsored by the Community Foundation.
December 2019 : BVCART conducts training involving tabletop exercise.
Spring/Summer 2020 : AANBV receives funding from local charitable grants as well as local governmental entities to allow movement to full-time service delivery beginning in the fall of 2020.
October 2020: AANBV moves into donated space at 2201 Rio Grande in College Station, Brazos County, TX to begin full-time service delivery for the Brazos Valley region. This includes the ability to hire its first employee.
October 2020 : AANBV participates in the 2nd annual of giving, “Brazos Valley Gives”, sponsored by the Community Foundation.
Fall 2020: AANBV opens up 4 support cases on behalf of local law enforcement and/or family members of the missing.
Amber Alerts : AANBV assisted in the issuance of Amber Alerts involving 4 different children, all of whom were recovered safely, throughout the year.
Case Support : AANBV opened up 40 total support cases at the request of law enforcement and/or family members of the missing. This included the 4 cases involving Amber Alerts as well as 12 cases involving Endangered Missing Children (or Adults).
Field Response : AANBV representatives responded into the field on 16 different occasions to assist with alerting decisions, public notification efforts, search coordination/assistance, BVCART oversight during the initial or as part of on-going investigative efforts. This included a multiple day response in support of the Grimes County Sheriff’s Office in October during the search for 3 year old Christopher Ramirez who was safely located after being lost in the woods for 70 hours.
Training : throughout the year, AANBV is involved in delivering 16 different training classes/opportunities for law enforcement, other responders, and members of the public on topics such as alerting processes/resources; NetSmartz online safety curriculum, and new CART member classes. This training was delivered to 149 persons and accounted for 551 total training hours.