[ARRL-OK] OT: Amber Alert: Baby Taken By Mother In Oklahoma City

Tue Nov 8 01:21:37 EST 2005

Here are the Dept. Of Justice recommended criteria for issuing an Amber 
Alert.  The entire document can be found at:
http://www.amberalert.gov/docs/AMBERCriteria.pdf

Summary of Department of Justice Recommended Criteria:

! There is reasonable belief by law enforcement that an abduction
has occurred.

! The law enforcement agency believes that the child is in imminent
danger of serious bodily injury or death.

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

! The abduction is of a child aged 17 years or younger.

! The Child's name and other critical data elements, including the Child
Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information
Center (NCIC) system.

Regarding the first item, it says this:

It is recommended that AMBER plans require confirmation by law
enforcement of an abduction prior to issuing an alert.

This component is essential when determining the level of risk to the
child. Clearly, stranger abductions are the most dangerous for children
and thus are primary to the mission of an AMBER Alert. To allow
activations in the absence of significant information that an abduction
has occurred could lead to abuse of the system and ultimately weaken
its effectiveness. At the same time, each case must be appraised on its
own merits and a judgment call made quickly. Law enforcement must
understand that a "best judgment" approach, based on the evidence,
is appropriate and necessary.

So, while "stranger abductions are the most dangerous for children
and thus are primary to the mission of an AMBER Alert", the DOJ doesn't 
preclude abductions by friends or family members, including parents.  As 
stated in the guidelines, law enforcement should use a "best approach".  The 
key factor would seem to me to be this one:  "The law enforcement agency 
believes that the child is in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or 
death".

While the alert that was issued might have been inappropriate, who are we to 
say?  Are you, or somebody else, planning on prescreening an alert issued by 
a valid issuing agency, and deciding which ones should be passed on?  The 
Amber Alert was issued by the Cleveland County SO, a valid law enforcement 
agency.  It stated that the child was "abducted by her mother", which 
doesn't sound like a child custody dispute, it sounds like the mother had no 
legal right to take the child.  Why, we don't know, nor do we need to.  The 
SO apparently had good reason to believe the child was in danger.  Again, we 
don't need to know why.

If this sort of thing bothers you, feel free to delete the email.  I delete 
dozens of emails each week whose topics are not of interest to me, it's 
really quite easy to do.

Oh, BTW, I'm former LEO myself (dispatcher).  This is the sort of thing I 
used to see issued as BOLOs on OLETS all the time.  This time, they decided 
to get the citizens involved also.  A good idea, IMHO.

Mark - K5MAR

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "KE5EXY" <ke5exy at olp.net>
To: "ARRL Oklahoma Section List" <arrl-ok at mailman.qth.net>
Cc: <k2gkk at hotmail.com>
Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 11:08 PM
Subject: Re: [ARRL-OK] OT: Amber Alert: Baby Taken By Mother In Oklahoma 
City

> Hey, you know what Mac? I agree with you 100%...IF IT WAS A VALID AMBER 
> ALERT that was issued! It was NOT. It was a child custody dispute. Do you 
> know how many of these disputes go on every day? The agency that issued 
> the alert screwed up and made a mistake and no one outside of probably 
> those of us that are current or former law enforcement know that.
>
> I don't wear panties, and if I did, they weren't in a wad. I was merely 
> stating how this was a misuse of the Amber Alert system. The media 
> reported earlier today that the situation was resolved anyway.
>
> So based on what you are saying below, you don't care how valid the Alert 
> is, we should flood every outlet we can with invalid alerts anyway. Real 
> smart idea Mac. Ever heard the story of the boy who cried wolf? If invalid 
> Amber Alerts go out constantly, then people get numb to them and don't 
> really perk up to them. This is why there is CRITERIA that an agency is 
> SUPPOSED to follow before issuing an alert. It's not just for every 
> runaway or child custody dispute.
>
> I'm going to leave it at that. I'm only trying to educate folks a little 
> bit better as to what an Amber Alert really is.
>
>
> ----- Original Message ----- 
> From: "D C *Mac* Macdonald" <k2gkk at hotmail.com>
> To: <arrl-ok at mailman.qth.net>
> Sent: Monday, November 07, 2005 7:21 PM
> Subject: Re: [ARRL-OK] OT: Amber Alert: Baby Taken By Mother In Oklahoma 
> City
>
>
>> Regardless of any supposed validity or lack thereof about
>> the propriety of the actual alert, I would state that Amber
>> Alerts should be given the widest possible distribution.
>>
>> Contrary to what some people "think" there are many
>> people who pay absolutely no attention to mass media.
>>
>> If what somebody says or writes gets your panties in a wad,
>> perhaps practice with the DELETE key is in order.
>>
>> Mac, K2GKK
>> Oklahoma City
>
> ______________________________________________________
> ___________________ Information __________________________
> ARRL Oklahoma Section Manager - John Thomason, WB5SYT wb5syt at arrl.org
> Oklahoma Section Web page http://www.qsl.net/wb5syt/index.html
>
>
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