Abduction alert new on Alertswiss
Since the end of June, the kidnapping alert has been integrated into the alerting app Alertswiss and the Alertswiss website. The SMS alert, to which the population could subscribe until now, is expected to be replaced by the end of 2024. In the future, Alertswiss will provide another channel for reacting as quickly as possible in the event of an abduction, according to the Federal Office of Police.
In the event of a kidnapping, the first few hours and every tip from the public can be decisive, as fedpol emphasizes. In 2010, fedpol launched the kidnapping alert, which allows the police to issue a rapid and comprehensive alert. Until now, the Swiss population has been able to contact www.entfuehrungsalarm.ch register for the SMS alert. In the event of an abduction, registered persons will receive an SMS. From June 30, 2023, the abduction alert will be included in the national Alarm app Alertswiss of the Federal Office for Civil Protection, as fedpol writes in its media release. With the Alertswiss app, users can be informed, warned and alerted with push messages in the case of events relevant to population protection in favorite cantons they have selected themselves and in their own location. The abduction alert will result in a "warning" level notification for all of Switzerland via Alertswiss, he said. The Alertswiss app is currently installed on more than 1.7 million smartphones, according to the statement. With the integration of the abduction alert into Alertswiss, the SMS alert is expected to be discontinued by the end of 2024.
Abduction alarm is a police joint task
The kidnapping alert is a collaboration between the Federal Department of Justice and Police (FDJP) and the Conference of Cantonal Justice and Police Directors (CCJPD). He said that in Switzerland, the cantonal police are responsible for the primary management of an abduction. They would decide whether to sound the kidnapping alarm. If the alert is triggered, fedpol, together with its convention partners, disseminates the alert throughout Switzerland for at least three hours. The channels include media, websites, and information screens at public, high-traffic locations such as highways, airports, train stations, and shopping malls. At the same time, fedpol is operating and maintaining national and international police channels and is setting up a call center where the public can get in touch with information about the kidnapping, the report concludes.
