The Amber Alert has proven itself as an effective means for getting word out on the street about a kidnapping.

But what about those situations in which a person is in a precarious situation, but it is not clear that a kidnapping occurredfi The public needs to be notified, but such a situation may not deserve the drop-everything-this-instant attention that an Amber Alert commands.

It's a problem police agencies have struggled with, some just putting out a be-on-the-alert message to police or waiting until sufficient evidence emerges to call a full Amber Alert.

In Utah, the solution is simple: issue an endangered person advisory. It allows police to get out information when an Amber Alert would be inappropriate.

Amber Alerts are traditionally used when there is clear evidence of a kidnap. The 2005 killing of an Idaho couple and the disappearance of their two young children was a classic Amber Alert scenario.

But there are times when someone has disappeared and may be in danger but may simply be lost. For example, an 80-year-old woman with Alzheimer's disease who wanders out of the house would be endangered by her deteriorating mental condition, but would not warrant being subject to an Amber Alert.

A runaway teen would also not trigger an Amber Alert even though the person may be in significant danger. One survey of Utah's homeless youth found that 37 percent of those surveyed had been sexually assaulted and half of them had attempted suicide, yet such danger may not rise to the level of an Amber Alert.

Utah's Endangered Person Advisory codifies a system other states use. Police are told to be on the lookout for someone. The system has been used several times in this state since it was implemented in September 2005, most recently when two Orem girls went missing. While the family of one girl received a text message that they had been kidnapped, police did not believe it and instead triggered the lesser advisory. This ultimately led to the girls' being found in Nevada.

The benefits are obvious. Instead of having maybe a dozen police officers looking for someone between regular police calls, thousands of people can be asked to look for someone who needs help. If it turns out that the person really was kidnapped, valuable time is not lost waiting to build a case for an Amber Alert.

The lighter advisory lets people know to keep an eye out without creating the anxiety of a kidnap scenario.

Lesser advisories preserve the urgency of the Amber Alert. If Amber Alerts were issued every time a child ran away from home or got lost on a hike, people would start to ignore them, figuring no big deal.

Utah officials will be presenting the state's program at a national Amber Alert conference. We expect that other states will decide to copy our program and give police and the public a better tool for helping those who are in trouble.

This story appeared in The Daily Herald on page A5.