Arizona Turquoise Alert system created to help authorities locate certain missing people

PHOENIX – Arizona leaders on Thursday announced the creation of the Turquoise Alert system to help authorities locate certain missing people.

“This is a critical communication tool that will help save lives when certain vulnerable individuals go missing,” Hobbs said during a press conference on Thursday.

Turquoise Alerts will be activated when the following criteria are met, according to the Arizona Department of Public Safety:

• The missing person is under 65 years of age.
• Local law enforcement has exhausted all available resources.
• There is reason to believe the individual is in danger or in the company of a potentially dangerous person.
• Sufficient descriptive information is available to assist in their recovery.

The Turquoise Alert is now live in Arizona. It was designed to help find the disproportionately high number of missing Native Americans. But can also be activated for anyone who disappears under suspicious circumstances and may be in danger. @KTAR923 pic.twitter.com/QDZhPSGro1

— Heidi Hommel (@heidi_hommel) July 10, 2025

“The Turquoise Alert will be activated by the Emergency Alert System, which you will see on your television and you will hear on your radio,” Lt. Col. Deston Coleman, deputy director for DPS, said during the press conference.

The alerts also will sound on cellphones through the Wireless Emergency Alert system, Coleman added.

DPS Capt. Thomas Neve said Turquoise Alerts plug a gap in the state’s missing person alert system.

“We have the Amber Alert for abducted children,” Neve said during the press conference. “We have Silver Alert for anyone over 65, which may also include someone that’s abducted. But until this alert passed, we didn’t have an alert in place to address people between the ages of 18 to 65. Now we do.”

Turquoise Alert legislation is also known as ‘Emily’s Law’

Tribal partners helped craft the bill to authorize Turquoise Alerts. Both chambers of the Legislature passed it unanimously in May before Hobbs signed it.

The legislation is known as “Emily’s Law” to honor San Carlos Apache tribal member Emily Pike, a 14-year-old girl whose remains were found after she went missing from her Mesa group home earlier this year.

Pike’s death spurred a resurgence of activism aimed at bringing more awareness to the disproportionate number of disappearances and violent deaths that have gripped Native American communities for decades.

Her murder remains unsolved despite over $175,000 in reward money being offered.

DPS is expecting to activate about 15-30 Turquoise Alerts annually, although the number could wind up being higher as awareness of the system increases.

KTAR News 92.3 FM’s Heidi Hommel and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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