A volunteer search network
for under $400K.
Privacy-first, AI-powered missing persons response that closes the rural coverage gap commercial vendors can't economically reach.
The bottleneck isn't
investigation. It's coverage.
Law enforcement has powerful tools, but their reach is limited by personnel and the fixed locations of stationary license plate readers. In the first three hours — when recovery is most likely — coverage is the variable that can be changed.
AMBER AngelsRural America has a camera deficit.
Carroll County, Georgia is representative. Commercial LPR vendors deploy where municipal budgets and HOA fees can sustain $3,000+/camera/year subscriptions. That model breaks in low-density geography — exactly where most missing-persons cases originate.
Sources: county procurement records, IACP rural law enforcement surveys 2023–24. Coverage estimates illustrative.
AMBER AngelsMobile-first. Alert-triggered. Community-owned.
Amber's Angels activates only when a government-issued alert fires. Ground volunteers respond from daily routes. Drone pilots relinquish personal hardware to autonomous coordinator dispatch. Every detection is AI-screened and coordinator-reviewed before it reaches a response team.
Zero hardware acquisition cost
Ground volunteers use smartphones they already own. Drone pilots relinquish personal DJI hardware to autonomous dispatch — no company-owned fleet, no procurement contract, no maintenance cycle.
→ Coverage scales with community, not capital budgetCascade Inference Engine
YOLOv8 + MobileNetV3 + OpenALPR identify make, model, year range, and plate. Vehicles are findable even when plates are switched.
→ <5% false positive rate vs ~30% plate-onlyPrivacy-first by design
Raw footage deleted immediately. No video archive. No surveillance database. Every detection requires human coordinator review.
→ Community-trusted, not surveillance infrastructureAMBER AngelsFixed infrastructure doesn't move.
Suspects do.
Fixed cameras are infrastructure we complement — not displace. But the model that compounds is ours: every new volunteer costs nothing, covers new ground, and strengthens the network.
AMBER Angels25 active nodes for the cost of 11 fixed cameras.
25 fixed LPR cameras
- ~$3,000 per camera per year subscription
- Plus install, mounting, and electrical
- Locked to fixed locations — coverage doesn't move
- Drone product adds company-owned hardware cost layer
25 mobile nodes + autonomous drone swarm
- Volunteers contribute device + driving time
- Drone fleet: volunteer-relinquished DJI hardware — $0 acquisition
- No recurring software license fees (open source)
- Marginal cost per added volunteer or drone ≈ $0
~53% lower year-one cost — including drone capability that costs competitors $40K+ per unit. The asymmetry compounds as the volunteer network grows because coverage isn't constrained by hardware procurement.
AMBER AngelsWhat every grant dollar actually buys.
Pilot-year projections based on 25 active volunteers × 40 road-miles/node/alert × 12 monthly alerts. Conservative volunteer hour valuation per Independent Sector 2024 ($28.54/hr).
AMBER AngelsEvery dollar is mission-direct.
No software licensing fees. No proprietary platform lock-in. We're built on open-source foundations because mission infrastructure should be auditable, transferable, and free to replicate.
Operations & Personnel
Part-time program coordinator, volunteer training, background checks, insurance
AI Model Development
VMMC accuracy improvements, dataset curation, model evaluation infrastructure
Technology Infrastructure
Cloud compute, mobile app maintenance, DJI SDK integration, security compliance
Public Transparency Reporting
Quarterly reports on detection accuracy, false positive rates, retention compliance
Administrative Overhead
Legal, accounting, 501(c)(3) compliance, board governance
AMBER AngelsSaving lives without building a surveillance state.
Privacy is the foundation, not a feature. Every architectural choice begins with: what is the minimum data required for this mission? It's why we can operate where commercial vendors face community pushback.
No video archive
Footage is processed in real-time and deleted immediately after AI scoring. No searchable database.
Operational necessity only
Strictly mission-required data is collected. Nothing more. Retention measured in seconds, not days.
Human in the loop
No AI result reaches law enforcement without coordinator review. AI flags. Humans decide.
Public transparency
Quarterly published reports on accuracy, retention, and incident counts. Auditable by design.
AMBER AngelsMission-critical software needs mission-critical builders.
-
AI Technologist
Hands-on engineering experience in production ML and computer vision systems
-
Military Intelligence Professional
Operational rigor, security mindset, and a track record of mission-critical decision-making
-
Air Defense Subject Matter Expert
Deep familiarity with airspace, surveillance systems, and threat-detection architecture
-
Financial Technology Engineer
Currently building secure, regulated, audit-grade software systems
-
1,000+ hours drone flight time
Working toward Part 107 certification; partnering with certified pilots in the interim
501(c)(3) Approved
Federally recognized 501(c)(3) nonprofit. Every grant dollar deductible and mission-restricted. Full board governance and annual public 990 transparency.
SDVOSB founding ethos
Built on the operational discipline and service orientation of veteran founders. Active engagement with local veteran volunteer networks.
No vendor lock-in
Stack is auditable, transferable, and replicable. Funders fund mission, not licenses. Future organizations can adopt the playbook.
AMBER AngelsEvery milestone is measurable and publishable.
Onboarding & Platform Hardening
Enroll 30 ground volunteers · recruit 5 Part 107 pilots · complete platform integration testing · finalize coordinator notification and lead-sharing protocol
Live Operational Readiness
Live AMBER Alert response capability · field exercises with law enforcement observers · VMMC accuracy validation against benchmark dataset
First Public Transparency Report
Detection accuracy · false positive rate · privacy compliance audit · volunteer engagement metrics · published openly for field replication
Pilot Operations & Year-2 Planning
Sustained operational readiness · scaling playbook authored · year-2 county selection · second transparency report · grant renewal package
AMBER AngelsPublic-interest infrastructure that compounds.
Marginal cost per additional volunteer is essentially zero. The funding curve flattens — most year-2 expansion cost is one-time county onboarding, not recurring per-node fees.
- 30 active volunteer searchers
- 5 Part 107 drone pilots
- Live AMBER Alert response
- First public transparency report
- Onboarding playbook stabilized
- ~150 active volunteers
- Regional coordinator hired
- Federal partnership pathway
- Coordinator positions per region
- Federal grant baseline established
- ~1,000 active volunteers
- Open-source platform widely adopted
AMBER AngelsReal logs.
June 7, 2026.
Demo AMBER Alert injected. Two volunteers — one phone, one drone — both hit 99% peak confidence on plate YVJ024.
AMBER AngelsApproaching multiple federal, foundation, and corporate funders. Partial funding still moves the mission forward — every dollar is mission-direct and tax-deductible.
What your partnership unlocks.
-
Operational pilot — 30 volunteers + 5 drone pilots covering 503 sq mi of Carroll County during active alerts
-
~$171K in-kind volunteer match — countable on most federal grants, demonstrating community participation
-
Two public transparency reports — replicable evidence base for the field on volunteer-driven search effectiveness
-
Year-2 scaling readiness — playbook and operational template ready for 5-county expansion