Define an "Amber Alert"

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Moosemedic

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OK, I know I'm going to start a Flame war with this, but I've got to ask the question;
What's everyone's definition of an Amber Alert? I'm not talking the actual definition, I guess I'm asking what the group's opinion of an actual Amber Alert is?

In my personal opinion, I thin of an Amber Alert event such as a 5 year old snatched from a Daycare center by an UNKNOWN person.

A child gets off the bus, and hasn't been seen since....... BIGTIME scare

The Child in the Ft. Collins area that was a near miss, being grabbed out of the family yard, he'd have been a REAL Amber Alert.

These Amber Alerts this week for an overdue 16 year old girl, goes out with friends the night before, out too late, out with someone she shouldn't have been, etc. We know she showed up, within hours of the "alert", but nothing more was said. If she's at fault fine her, if you dont' feel that's right, charge the parents with careless parenthood or something.

The current "Amber Alert" moving from West to East here in Denver is not even a custody battle. Some guy and his girlfriend get in a physical altercation, he grabs THIER son and departs. A crime? Oh yeah, but an "Amber Alert" There are plenty of people that know where that child is; That's my point!

I USED to get Amber Alerts sent by Text Message to my Cell, as I'm driving around I'd keep an eye out. Call it a civilian BOLO. But as with LEO's and BOLO's are you really writing down and looking for all these "Attempt to Locate, 46 year old Male from San Diego, headed for Kansas City, late model Ford" Well I'm not looking delinquent teenagers, or custody disputes.

The sad part is I believe that others are numb to the REAL emergency as well. I don't want to miss the REAL Amber Alert, a Child in need.
 

scanjunkie

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Hey Moose,
I have to agree with the last line of your statement. If you over use the system people will be come numb to it's impotance.
However, in some of the cases, the teen who is overdue for instance, if the authorities were to wait until they were absolutley sure the individual was missing to put the alert out it would defeat the whole purpose of the system. The purose is to get word out immediately to as many people as possible. Yes, there are going to be cases that it turns out to have not been warranted...but I would rather the alert go out and have it be a false alarm than I would to wait and have any human being harmed because of a delay.
 

les108

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Amber Alerts

This is Indiana's version of an Amber Alert

Each city or state's Amber Plan program is administered separately in accordance with EAS procedures approved by the FCC. Each program establishes its own Amber Alert criteria, activation procedures, and distribution methods.

For example, the Indiana Amber Alert Plan has four Alert criteria:


The child must be under 18 years of age

The child must be believed to be abducted, and in danger of serious bodily harm or death.

There must be enough descriptive information to believe the broadcast will help.

Request must be recommended by the law enforcement agency of jurisdiction.
Missing adults and runaways do NOT qualify for Amber Alert activitation in Indiana. Children taken in child custody disputes generally will not qualify for an Amber Alert unless there is specific credible information indicating a child may be in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.
 

Todd-NG

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Moosemedic said:
These Amber Alerts this week for an overdue 16 year old girl, goes out with friends the night before, out too late, out with someone she shouldn't have been, etc. We know she showed up, within hours of the "alert", but nothing more was said. If she's at fault fine her, if you dont' feel that's right, charge the parents with careless parenthood or something.

Are you are referring to AMBER Alert #38 as listed in the Colorado Bureau of Investigations AMBER Alert web page for a 16 year old girl missing in Ft. Collins? This is the only AMBER Alert that has been listed for a 16 YO in the last few weeks. Personally I think the fact that they found her car, keys and one sandal in front of a friend's house and her cell phone half a block away is a good indicator that this is more than just an irresponsible teen out past her curfew. I feel that this was a justified reason for issuing an AMBER Alert.

Here is a link the CBI's web page for AMBER Alerts: http://www.cbi.state.co.us/mp/amber/amberlist.asp

NOTE TO OUR MONITORS: This topic is not an incident or breaking new story and should probably be moved to the proper Colorado forum.
 

Moosemedic

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Les108...That's perfect! That's just what I'm talking about.

Something practical that makes sense. Somethign that's likely to produce results and provided wnough information that's verifiyable and credible. It sounds like they got it together, I hope it gets some fine tuning locally.

For example, the "hostage standoff" this week... Started in West Denver, over by Saint Anthony's and remaind in place for hours. Then turned up in the South East part of town, and ended tragically.

But that was an "Amber Alert" and more than a few people knew where he was and what was going on.
 
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The Definition of INCIDENT

Todd-NG said:
Are you are referring to AMBER Alert #38 as listed in the Colorado Bureau of Investigations AMBER Alert web page for a 16 year old girl missing in Ft. Collins? This is the only AMBER Alert that has been listed for a 16 YO in the last few weeks. Personally I think the fact that they found her car, keys and one sandal in front of a friend's house and her cell phone half a block away is a good indicator that this is more than just an irresponsible teen out past her curfew. I feel that this was a justified reason for issuing an AMBER Alert.

Here is a link the CBI's web page for AMBER Alerts: http://www.cbi.state.co.us/mp/amber/amberlist.asp

NOTE TO OUR MONITORS: This topic is not an incident or breaking new story and should probably be moved to the proper Colorado forum.
AMBER ALERT IS A INCIDENT
:eek: in·ci·dent
in·ci·dent [ínsid’nt]
n
1. event: something that happens, especially a single event
2. violent occurrence: a public occurrence, especially a violent one an incident outside a nightclub

3. event with potentially serious consequences: an event that may result in a crisis, especially in international matters

adj
1. related to something: accompanying something or occurring as a consequence of it (formal)
2. physics coming into contact with surface: coming into contact with a surface

[15th century. Directly or via French from, ultimately, Latin incidere “to fall upon or happen to,” from cadere “to fall.”]
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Colorado Incidents and Breaking News
 
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Todd-NG

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lockoutspecialist2 said:
AMBER ALERT IS A INCIDENT
:eek: in·ci·dent
in·ci·dent [ínsid’nt]
n
1. event: something that happens, especially a single event
2. violent occurrence: a public occurrence, especially a violent one an incident outside a nightclub

3. event with potentially serious consequences: an event that may result in a crisis, especially in international matters

adj
1. related to something: accompanying something or occurring as a consequence of it (formal)
2. physics coming into contact with surface: coming into contact with a surface

[15th century. Directly or via French from, ultimately, Latin incidere “to fall upon or happen to,” from cadere “to fall.”]
Encarta ® World English Dictionary © & (P) 1998-2004 Microsoft Corporation. All rights reserved.

Colorado Incidents and Breaking News

The start of this thread is a general question about AMBER Alerts. Lindsay was kind enough to set up this Sub-Forum for us to post individual INCIDENTS and Breaking News. A general question about something needs to be posted in the Colorado Radio Discussion Forum. The Colorado Incident and Breaking News Forum is reserved for specific, individual events that are taking place.

Craig, you are right. An AMBER ALERT is an incident, but we are not talking about a specific alert in this thread so that's why I feel the tread needs to be moved to the general discussion forum.
 
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I see your point now, and you are right about the thread, Yes it should be moved. Sorry about the misunderstanding Todd.
 
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Moosemedic

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Dear Admin, thanks for moving this to the correct forum

One more request;
Since this seems to have struck a nerve, could you delete the thread?
 

Todd-NG

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To our monitors, Thanks for moving this thread to the correct forum.

lockoutspecialist2 said:
I see your point now, and you are right about the thread, Yes it should be moved. Sorry about the misunderstanding Todd.

Craig, Not a problem. I just feel that we were fortunate enough to have Lindsay set up a Sub-Forum specifically for Incidents and Breaking News. The Colorado Forum is the only one that has this sub-forum; we were selected to test the idea before it is rolled out across the other boards. We just need to make sure that posts are made in the right forum so that this idea is successful.

Moosemedic said:
Dear Admin, thanks for moving this to the correct forum

One more request;
Since this seems to have struck a nerve, could you delete the thread?

Moosemedic, I don't see any reason that this thread should be deleted. Just because we had a short debate about were it should have been posted doesn’t take away the fact that you did ask a valid question. Now it's time to get back on topic and discuss the issue that this thread was started for in the first place.

There may be a problem with the way AMBER Alerts are issued. The situation with the parent taking off with his son and moving west to east across the Denver area was never entered into the CBI's AMBER Alert system web site. (These entries can be viewed here: http://cbi.state.co.us/mp/amber/amber_alert_list.asp ) The alert was not run through the proper channels. The Colorado Bureau of Investigation is supposed to be the liaison between the local law enforcement agencies and the primary Emergency Alert System Broadcasters. If agencies are contacting the broadcasters and not going through the CBI first then they are not following the proper procedure as stated on the CBI's web site. It is suppose to be the CBI's decision as to what qualifies as an AMBER Alert.
 

NeFire242

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Thanks for posting the link and info Todd. More areas should adopt this kind of idea where a single agency is the one to gather all the facts and then broadcast the AA.
 
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