So at 5:33 AM today I get an "Amber Alert" on my phone.
OK, I get that. Be on the lookout for XXX vehicle with plate number ABCxxyy. Timely info could lead to a quick resolution of the issue....
Then later this morning, I find out that this is for a 17 year old girl who "may" have been abducted 18 hours before from an area about 15 miles from my home.
Firstly, this isn't what the "Amber Alert" system is for....it is supposed to be used for more timely stuff like child abductions that have JUST HAPPENED, not for something that happened 18 hours earlier.
Second, waking people up early on a Sunday for stuff that happened 18 hours before is likely to cause them to turn the Amber Alert feature "OFF". Had this been put out at 3 in the afternoon for something that may have happened at noon or 1 pm, it might have made sense. Finding someone who MAY have been abducted and putting an alert out for the abductors vehicle makes sense. Putting the Amber Alert out at 5:30 in the morning is obviously not a great response time nor is it likely to result in finding the abductor 18 hours after he has fled.
I'd bet that nearly everyone that got the alert simply turned it off and went back to sleep. I was already awake, but it even irritated me at the timing. A part of me thought about turning the feature off since the authorities obviously can't use common sense, but I didn't, as the next one might be an alert where I could actually help....
One wonders about the intelligence and cognitive skills of the people in Law Enforcement who make these decisions. (Not meant to be a slam on cops in general, just SOME of their folks who do boneheaded stuff like the above)....If the dude has left the area, then there is no reason to be waking anyone up because he is long gone....18 hours worth of gone. If he's holed up close by, I doubt he's moving at 5:30 AM. Shoulda put the Amber Alert out within the hour of the abduction
OK, I get that. Be on the lookout for XXX vehicle with plate number ABCxxyy. Timely info could lead to a quick resolution of the issue....
Then later this morning, I find out that this is for a 17 year old girl who "may" have been abducted 18 hours before from an area about 15 miles from my home.
Firstly, this isn't what the "Amber Alert" system is for....it is supposed to be used for more timely stuff like child abductions that have JUST HAPPENED, not for something that happened 18 hours earlier.
Second, waking people up early on a Sunday for stuff that happened 18 hours before is likely to cause them to turn the Amber Alert feature "OFF". Had this been put out at 3 in the afternoon for something that may have happened at noon or 1 pm, it might have made sense. Finding someone who MAY have been abducted and putting an alert out for the abductors vehicle makes sense. Putting the Amber Alert out at 5:30 in the morning is obviously not a great response time nor is it likely to result in finding the abductor 18 hours after he has fled.
I'd bet that nearly everyone that got the alert simply turned it off and went back to sleep. I was already awake, but it even irritated me at the timing. A part of me thought about turning the feature off since the authorities obviously can't use common sense, but I didn't, as the next one might be an alert where I could actually help....
One wonders about the intelligence and cognitive skills of the people in Law Enforcement who make these decisions. (Not meant to be a slam on cops in general, just SOME of their folks who do boneheaded stuff like the above)....If the dude has left the area, then there is no reason to be waking anyone up because he is long gone....18 hours worth of gone. If he's holed up close by, I doubt he's moving at 5:30 AM. Shoulda put the Amber Alert out within the hour of the abduction
3 comments:
I shut that off on my phone. I was tired of being awakened at zero-dark-thirty for what usually turned out to be a "baby daddy" abduction.
Yeah, this is getting ridiculous... sigh
After 18 hours she could be more than 1000 miles away. That means pretty much Colorado eastward...
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