• A child under the age of 18 yrs old is missing
• A senior police officer (of at least Superintendent rank) or a Divisional Crime Manager feels that serious harm OR death may occur to the child
• The child has been, or is strongly suspected of having been, kidnapped, AND
• The case has sufficient descriptive details (or CCTV/photos) of the victim or offender, to justify launching an alert.

The key decision is whether to launch an alert at all. Overuse of the system, especially for incidents which are not suitable, will destroy confidence in it.

A senior officer must authorise the launch which will then activate messages to all media outlets.