There was something similar I was thinking about, Amber Alerts are generally set for a certain area, cell carriers in that area could be notified and send out a free MMS that contains name, license plate info, car make and model and stuff like that to a specific area thereby alerting everyone in a specific area as to what is happening.

This should allow people to be more vigilant and people are more likely to be paying attention to incoming messages on their phones than on FB whereby I have to be logged in first.