The safe rescue of an abducted 10-year-old girl in Nevada has put a new light on efforts to establish an emergency bulletin plan in parts of Canada.

Crystal Dunahee believes a so-called "Amber alert" could have helped bring her son safely home after he disappeared 11 years ago.

"I do believe a project like this could have helped us locate Michael a lot faster," she said.

Crystal Dunahee
Crystal Dunahee

On Tuesday, Nichole Taylor Timmons was found about 500 kilometres from her California home five hours after an Amber alert was issued.

Police in Reno, Nevada, were waiting for her family to come get her on Wednesday. Her former babysitter, Glenn Park, 67, has been arrested.

Amber Hagerman
Amber Hagerman

In an Amber alert system, law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters co-operate to issue urgent bulletins about missing children. Radio stations break into their scheduled programs with the alert, cable television will scroll a message on TV screens, and electronic highway signs will carry the bulletin.

Alerts could include descriptions of the child, a suspected abductor, and details about a vehicle. Police say getting the information distributed widely and fast is key, because after about three hours, the chances of finding a child safe drop off dramatically.

The alert was named after Amber Hagerman, a nine-year-old abducted and killed in Texas. Her killer was never found.

Missing children organizations in the United States say the Amber alert has helped save 26 children in the past five years.

On Tuesday, the alert brought hundreds of calls about Nichole and her alleged abductor.

Michael Dunahee has never been found. He was abducted from a park near his home in Victoria, B.C. His mother believes a bulletin could have kept his kidnapper from getting off Vancouver Island.

With 48 kids abducted by strangers across the country last year, police in B.C. want to implement the Amber system.

"Those communications systems are already in place," said RCMP Const. Danielle Efford. "What we're looking at is co-ordinating all of those in order to send out alerts."