Police across Ontario have now issued new clearer guidelines for its Amber Alert for when children are abducted. The new changes came into effect today, Monday 26, 2009; this was following a review made by the provincial police commissioner Julian Fantino way back in May.

The wording for the Amber Alert have been simplified, this now makes it much easier for both police and the public to understand the new guidelines. Before police had to confirm that a child under the age of 18 was abducted before an Amber Alert was raised; now they only have to believe that a child has been abducted for an alert to be issued.

Now police will only need to have information on the child, abductor or the suspect vehicle, before it had to be all three pieces of information. The reason why the previous guidelines came into question was because of the recent disappearance of an eight-year-old in Woodstock.

Victoria Stafford’s body was later found north of Guelph, Ont., police said that the case did not meet the criteria for issuing an alert. Two people were later arrested for the abduction and first-degree murder. For more on this, visit Global Toronto