Marc Klaas Calls For An Amber Alert Revision

[sniperacer]

For some reason I thought that when a child is taken an Amber Alert is always issued. Boy, have I been schooled. In my humble opinion, anytime a child goes missing one should be made then and not a day later. They shouldn't worry about issuing too many.

I think some of the confusion is between "taken" and "missing". Very different with regards to an Amber Alert - but you used them interchangeably.

 

[theforgotten]

Sorry, I didn't realize that I had done that!!:banghead:

 

[Tricia]

Actually she did not say parents could buy one . She said that as of right now they do not put out an amber alert for every parent that wants one, but that if the parents expect that to happen then the system should be changed so the parents pay for it.

This is still a terrible thing to say. What if a family is poor? Just not right.

Marc Klaas and I had a conversation about the Amber Alert this weekend. He said until the National Center for Missing Children change the criteria for the Amber Alert there is not a lot that can be done.

It is up to the Center to make the change.

 

[believe09]

I realize I am reading *advertiser censored**backwards here, but an officer of the law stated someone had to buy an amber alert??? I am sure the criteria has been posted but here it is again:
http://www.missingkids.com/missingkids/servlet/PageServlet?LanguageCountry=en_US&PageId=2813

• There is reasonable belief by law enforcement an abduction has occurred

• The abduction is of a child age 17 years or younger

• The law-enforcement agency believes the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death

• There is enough descriptive information about the victim and abduction for law enforcement to issue an AMBER Alert to assist in the recovery of the child

• The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) computer

My bold, italic, underline. I suspect that this is where the wiggle room is for most of the un-alerted cases. Clearly under no circumstances is the "cost" supposed to be at issue.

I think the grey area for me is the concept of abduction. If my seven year old disappears from walking home from school with her friends, this is not considered an abduction. At the end of the day, it may have been just that. So what should be done at the moment we have a missing child? What do we want from LE? What makes the most sense?

I suspect this will be decided based upon 99% of the cases vs the 1%-like do most missing child calls end up with a found child inside of an hour or two?

Gonna go back and read now....:blushing:

 

[believe09]

Nine year old Elizabeth Olten left her friends house at 6:15 pm,her parents called the police at 7:00 pm,merely 45 minutes had passed for the crime to have begun. No Amber Alert! If one had been issued IMMEDIATELY, I can't help but wonder if they could have found her in time. The people in the area could have gotten out and searched immediately,they turned out in droves once they DID hear about the missing child. All those people in those woods IMMEDIATELY after she was reported missing....think about it. She may very well still be with us. We need change in the Amber Alert laws NOW!!!!

I think this is hard-sure an Amber alert could have been sent out with her description, but would they have found her in the woods with the teen perp (if that were the circumstances) or am I mistaken and there was a vehicle involved and the description was part of the witness statements?

Maybe really what we are looking for is a smaller version of the National Guard-a missing child report is made and 100 people beat feet for the area around where the child was last seen???

 

[eaglemom]

I really don't see why there can't be a 'missing child/person" cable channel. Most cable networks have requirements in communities for so much public service. Providing a public service channel. It seems to me since all of this information is already digitized - it could just be put on a loop. Airports could be required to play it 3 hours a day, etc. I am not saying there has to be a whole story - 20 seconds with the child's picture and then another 20 seconds if the picture is available 'aged'.

If a child has just become missing (even if they don't comply with amber alert guidelines) they are still missing. Let's face it, even custodial issues can still place children in danger. The loop could be interrupted and flash traffic inserted for the specific area. This same loop (since it is digitized) could be available through the internet and thus available through a link on a library site, government site, etc.

It really doesn't have to be that hard. If you look at them Jaycee Dugard and Shawn Hornbeck didn't really look all that different. Perhaps if these offenders knew the pictures were out there and being broadcast it would make them think a bit more. I also heard a statistic recently that although many of the people in this country live below the poverty line they still afford cable television (above internet). You can get into a lot of homes through television. People watch sumo wrestling at 1 am they will turn to this channel occasionally and who knows what will happen.

 

[believe09]

Here was a situation raised to me offline by another WSer...in MA in a 3 week period, the Herald reported three attempted child abductions in three different towns. When you put the articles side by side, you could see immediately that the description of the vehicle and the driver were essentially the same. I called it in to the towns involved and they were unaware that they each held a piece of this puzzle.

Dude had the same MO as well in terms of approach to a child he singled out-now some kind of state or county wide alert on this would have been nice. Unless you read page whatever where the little blurb was buried, you would have no idea that a creep in a white van was attempting to abduct children.

I am all for some kind of alert regarding things like this and missing children as well as adults-a blurb....something that would catch the attention of the general public in the area.

 

[LogicalMinds]

Great topic

Perhaps the "amber alert" could be modified so that when there is no real vehicle/perp description it could still be sent out in a "localized" area??

we now have "silver alerts" for missing older people/altzheimers/developmentally disabled etc....I don't know that their critera is as strict as the "amber alert"...

I think that we could have "amber alerts" for all missing kids and people who choose to get them on their cell phone or computer should be able to "adjust them".. to accept them or reject them based on what they are willing to accept so that our cell phones don't get overloaded with "alerts" not near us etc