SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Questions about the emergency alerts used in the search for 2-year-old Aryana Trevino Martinez have prompted a closer look at how Texas\u2019 statewide alert systems work.<\/p>\n
An AMBER Alert was issued across Texas after Martinez was reported missing Sunday evening. On Tuesday, the San Antonio Police Department (SAPD) told KSAT the case is classified as an \u201cEndangered Missing Person\u201d investigation.<\/p>\n
KSAT reached out to both SAPD and the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) seeking clarification on why different classifications were used and how the decision to issue a statewide alert is made.<\/p>\n
In the meantime, KSAT read through DPS\u2019 overview<\/a> and SAPD\u2019s General Manual Procedures<\/a> to better understand the purpose and criteria for each alert, in any case that is issued to the public.<\/p>\n What is an AMBER Alert?<\/p>\n According to DPS, an AMBER Alert is designed to quickly notify the public about serious child abduction cases in hopes of generating tips that help law enforcement locate the child. <\/p>\n Under DPS guidelines and SAPD policy, an AMBER Alert generally requires:<\/p>\n The child is 17 years old or younger whose whereabouts are unknown, or a child 13 years old or younger who was taken without permission under certain circumstances<\/p>\n Law enforcement determines that the child faces a credible threat of death, serious bodily injury or sexual assault<\/p>\n A preliminary investigation has verified an abduction and ruled out other explanations for the child\u2019s disappearance<\/p>\n Investigators have enough information to help the public identify the child, a suspect or a vehicle connected with the case<\/p>\n SAPD\u2019s Missing Persons General Manual states that requests for an AMBER Alert must meet the criteria established by DPS before the department requests activation of the statewide alert<\/p>\n What is an Endangered Missing Person Alert?<\/p>\n The Endangered Missing Person Alert is a separate statewide alert administered by DPS.<\/p>\n According to DPS and SAPD policy, the alert was created after Texas expanded its alert system to include missing people of any age who have a documented intellectual disability or developmental disorder whose disappearance poses a credible threat to their health or safety.<\/p>\n To qualify for an Endangered Missing Person Alert, the following criteria generally must be met:<\/p>\n The missing person has a documented intellectual disability or developmental disorder, such as autism spectrum disorder or another qualifying diagnosis<\/p>\n Law enforcement determines the disappearance poses a credible threat to the person\u2019s health or safety after investigating the circumstances<\/p>\n The alert request is made within 72 hours of the person\u2019s disappearance<\/p>\n There is enough descriptive information available to assist the public in locating the missing person<\/p>\n Unlike an AMBER Alert, an Endangered Missing Person Alert is not based solely on age. Instead, it is intended for qualifying missing individuals of any age who meet the other provided criteria established by DPS.<\/p>\n Copyright 2026 by KSAT – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"SAN ANTONIO \u2013 Questions about the emergency alerts used in the search for 2-year-old Aryana Trevino Martinez have…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":399144,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[22737,139239,6071,671,82,27,29,28],"class_list":["post-399143","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-amber-alert","tag-aryana-trevino-martinez","tag-dps","tag-missing","tag-san-antonio","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399143","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=399143"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/399143\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/399144"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=399143"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=399143"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=399143"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}