Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley seeks continued $5,000 county support after multi-year funding

Chuck Fleager, executive director of Amber Alert Network Brazos Valley, told the Brazos County Commissioners Court the nonprofit is requesting $5,000 in county support — the same amount the network has received from the county for the past several years.

Fleager described the organization as “a regional missing persons non profit organization” that supports law enforcement and families by creating and distributing flyers, providing on-site assistance for searches, and offering training and public-awareness activities. He said the network has initiated more than 330 support cases since October 2020, with Brazos County accounting for 236 of those cases.

Fleager said missing-children cases make up about 80% of the network’s caseload and that the group has helped facilitate eight amber alerts at the regional or state level, all of which he said resulted in safe recoveries. He also said the organization has provided training (61 classes) and distributed more than 5,100 child ID kits; social-media posts tied to the network have reached more than 4.3 million people.

When asked, Fleager said the Cities of Bryan and College Station provide the same $5,000 contribution that he requested from Brazos County. He said the network is currently operating in donated space, uses donated equipment and plans to add a part-time position funded through other revenue sources.

No formal vote or funding decision was taken at the workshop; commissioners heard the request as part of outside-agency budget presentations.