PORTLAND – A communication system first developed as a Cold War precaution will be used by police by year’s end to locate missing children.

Police will be able to interrupt radio and television broadcasts with a bulletin that will be the cornerstone of an emergency notification program called the Amber Alert System, according to state police spokesman Stephen McCausland.

The Emergency Alert System was built to warn people of possible missile attacks. It is now used to announce severe thunderstorms.

The Amber Alert system is named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old Arlington, Texas, girl who was kidnapped and murdered in 1996.

The system, which operates in 14 states, is credited with helping police rescue two teenagers abducted in California earlier this summer, according to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

According to statistics compiled by the center, 54 percent of kidnapped children are killed within the first hour of their abduction. Within three hours, 74 percent are dead.

Only one percent survive a day.

Suzanne Goucher, executive director of the Maine Association of Broadcasters, said she first proposed bringing the system to Maine to her board in May 2001. Work toward bringing the Amber Alert to Maine has been going on for more than a year.

Federal law requires broadcasters to upgrade their emergency alert systems by January, and part of that upgrade will give police direct access to the system.

Until then, police can request access.

“If it was needed this afternoon, it could be rolled out,” McCausland said.

A case must meet two criteria if police are to use the Amber Alert:

. It must involve a child no older than 15 who is believed to be in imminent danger of serious bodily harm.

. There must be information that could assist in the safe recovery of the child if it were made available to the public, such as a description of the child or abductor.

Every month, 160 Maine children are reported missing, but few would meet the standards for an emergency bulletin.

There have been three cases since 1971 in which an Amber Alert probably would have been used if it had been available, McCausland said.

The most recent incident was in 1996, when a woman disguised as a nurse snatched a newborn from the Eastern Maine Medical Center maternity ward. She was arrested two hours later after being spotted at another hospital.

The other two cases have not been solved.

In 1971, 3-year-old Douglas Chapman of Alfred disappeared from the sand pile outside his home.

In 1975, 4-year-old Kurt Newton disappeared from a campground near Chain of Lakes.