This isn’t surprising at all. Amber Alerts are about 98% useless in my opinion. They’re rarely issued quickly enough to make any difference, and that is what the whole point of them was supposed to have been in the first place - quick action to make people aware immediately.
I personally consider them “non-custodial parent alerts”.
Statistics show that in most stranger abductions, the child is dead within 3 hours. It’s exceptionally rare to see an Amber Alert issued in less than 3 hours.
I know you were just sharing your opinion on Amber Alert’s and the effectiveness of their use, and it got me wondering what the actual data says on the topic.
It seems like Amber Alerts weren’t just to get the word out quickly, it was to get them out quickly and efficiently using a Cold War era emergency broadcast system. At the point Amber Alerts started, it had only been used for the weather. This wasn’t today’s world of course, and up until then I guess they had no way of notifying a local community of a child abduction until news time. Forgive me for finding that odd, I’m a child of the 90’s.
From what I read, and I will link sources so others can read for themselves, Amber Alerts have had a slight success rate of what one researcher estimated to be 20%. Most cases are like you said familial/custodial abductions. It’s also apparently hard to say if it were not for the amber alert whether the outcome would have been any different. It’s also hard to say whether the child’s life was ever actually threatened in each case.
This is a really good article on a researcher who says it isn’t adding anything to the situation, and the opposing argument from those who support Amber Alerts.
The Amber Alert system is more effective as theater than as a way to protect children - The Boston Globe
Personally, I think it is a case of the police being damned if they do and damned if they don’t.I say that because there’s an interesting article from 2005 on a look at Amber Alerts that should have never been put out in the first place. One of the criteria that counted towards the information was 23 alerts put out with vague information. That included no suspect information or vehicle description. Here we are now, having people angry it wasn’t issued right away.
MISSING: Bogus alarms endanger Amber Alert system's future <br> Officials often ignore federal guidelines
I also wouldn’t dismiss familial/custodial abductions as not as serious as stranger abduction. I do know that the child is more likely to be unharmed in that scenario. However, custody disputes are notoriously ugly, and some of these abductions still end with a parent losing their child. The fact remains in any abduction a child is in an environment the police have deemed to be unsafe, and the child needs to be home!
I don’t mean to say that you were dismissing those kinds of abductions. I know what you are saying is 9 times out of 10 it is a custody issue, and that’s pretty much what the Amber Alert has come to be. It sort of seems you were saying it as if the urgency was gone, and I know statistically, it really usually isn’t a dangerous situation. But who wants to play statistics when it comes to children?
Here is also a link to the Amber Alert Guidelines. It seems like the system would be ideal if police ever had all the details of what happened when they are called to an abduction right away. They are told NOT to call an Amber Alert while absent significant information about the abduction. Seems like their hands are tied, which is probably why we don't see the system used very often. Some states even have age limits as young as 12!
AMBER Alert - Guidelines
