I agree, I think the Amber Alert system is ridiculous for the most part. ANY CHILD under a certain age should automatically have an alert across the board, meaning all states should have the same age criteria. It would seem to me that every state should be able to say that any child 10 and under should get an alert. Or 8 and under, etc. you get the gist. Different states have different criteria. That is NOT helpful at all. If an 8 year old walks out of their house to go down the block to a friends and never makes it to that friends, and reasonable attempts to find that kid are unsuccessful, a NATIONWIDE Amber Alert in every single state should be activated whether or not somebody saw them get dragged into a car or not....WHY is that so difficult?
Nationwide? That’s a great way to get everyone to completely ignore all Amber Alerts. No one wants a text or alarm every day about a kid missing 2,000 miles away.
Yeah, that would be a bit much.
In the United States, an estimated 460,000 children are reported missing every year.
Missing Children's Statistics - Global Missing Children's Network
In NYC we have an app, Notify NYC, that alerts us to anything pertinent that we need to know. That includes notification about missing children, along with a picture, what they were wearing, where they were last seen, etc. We get Silver Alerts on there, too.
Of course it is local, just for our city, but obviously there are more people here than in most of America.
I understand that none of us can pay attention to hundreds of thousands of notifications a day. I also realize that in Lily's awful situation, she was dead before anyone knew she was missing, excepting the culprit.
However---if it were my child or grandchild, I would absolutely want a widespread notification. Particularly an Amber Alert. If it were a child in my own family, it would be imperative to me that though I'm in NYC, an Amber Alert would be nationwide. My child or grandchild could be kidnapped and in a car that can take him or her to anywhere in North America. If someone spotted that car with my child or grandchild in Texas, or California, or Florida, or Mexico, the Amber Alert may be what saves them.
I don't know the solution. Better minds can create a workable system, IMO.
But I know that if we close our eyes and picture our own little ones, how much is too much?