the Athena alert started as a result of a child abduction in Wise County I think it was last year in 2022 where a young lady was kidnapped and it ended up being by a delivery driver and she was murdered and so Governor Abbott signed into law a bill that was presented called the Athena Alert in honor of her and what this law does for law enforcement specifically and for and for Citizens is it gives us an immediate way to get information out concerning a missing child without having to you know jump through the Hoops that you have to jump through to get an amber alert out and I don't mean that in a negative way the Amber Alert is a great system and it's helped a lot of kids be found but this law this alert gives us the ability if we get sent to a call where is missing it gives us the opportunity to go ahead and push it out within a 100 mile radius I believe it is so regionally we're going to be able to send a message out about the child missing and you said that here in Smith County we haven't had the issue um an Athena alert at this time no no we have not fortunately we have not yet uh you know but I'll you know I'm sure down the road you know unfortunately we'll have to issue one out just like any other law enforcement agency but uh you know we get a lot of Amber Alerts I know some people get woke up in the morning and they you know at one or two o'clock in the morning with an amber alert but you know I don't want people to get to the point where they stop looking at these things because even though it may wake you up it's important enough that we get this information out to the public so they can be on the lookout for you know whatever description we have of the vehicle suspect vehicle the suspect the child I know you see the signs on the highways going you know to and from Dallas or Houston or out on the interstate when we do have these Amber Alerts put out I'm sure the Athena alert will be the same way uh you know so again you know it's one of those things that uh is going to be Regional at this point Amber Alerts Statewide but with the regional Amber Alert will have the ability for citizens to go ahead and you know start looking for this particular individual citizens are an invaluable resource to us when we're looking for you know missing children especially you know unfortunately we've worked you know calls in the past where kids went missing and they ended up being found you know dead maybe in a pond or you know somewhere like that but you know to have a citizen group come out and help search a lot of times that makes a big difference in whether the child gets located or not and we were also talking about that how critics are saying that people kind of go numb to these alerts because they just get it constantly they even like I think there's even a way on your iPhone to just turn off right so that's what we were wondering with Athena that do you think people are going to go down to these kinds of alerts yeah I mean it's kind of like you know the boy that cried wolf story you know that he cried wolf so many times and you know everybody just started ignoring it after that point and I hope that people see through that I hope people see that this isn't a valuable tool in that they don't shut it off on their iPhone because you know the way I look at it is I carry two phones I carry my personal phone and I carry the phone with the sheriff issues me and you know both of them are activated and the thing that I want people to think about is what if that was your child or what if that was your grandchild nephew niece what if that was somebody that you loved a friend's child how would you feel about that then you know so you know try to you know take these things seriously when you see them go ahead and look at them and read them and you know be wary of of whatever the description is whenever you get out and about you know start your day or night Greg Abbott signed this on June the 13th of this year and it's effective immediately so I personally haven't heard one come out yet but I believe that we'll start seeing these come out as time progresses uh you know a lot of times you know the big thing is we get sent to a lot of calls where children are missing and they're either going to be a runaway a lot of times or they just got lost in the neighborhood or went to a friend's house and the parents didn't know where they were and they always pretty much end up you know with a happy ending but nevertheless you know if you're if you're a parent and you've been to the mall with your children and you've suddenly lost one of them in the mall you know what kind of a panic that is to you you know to you again when law enforcement comes out it gives us a way to get that information out quickly and it gives us a way to you know allow the public to know what's going on and and that this child is missing and oftentimes that can be the difference between a good outcome and a bad outcome yeah I'm very hopeful I think this is a very much needed thing and unfortunately you know the child that it was named after is a tree you know that ended tragically but you know if this child's Legacy can be just like the amber alert if this child's Legacy can be helping other children avoid that kind of outcome I think that's a wonderful Legacy that this young lady can leave for for you know other children