AMBER Alerts: Are They Effective?
Alyssa Payne
CJC-113 Juvenile Justice
James Crawford
Fall Semester 2015
INTRODUCTION
“Fairfield Police Department?” a dispatcher answered the telephone.
“OH MY GOD! Someone took my car, MY SON WAS INSIDE!” a distraught woman sobbed.
“Give me a vehicle description, how old is your son, which way did the car go?”
“It is a silver Toyota Corolla, my son is 8 and I don’t know which way the car went.”
“Ma’am, I know you’re scared; I have officers on the way to you. What is your son’s name?”
“BROCK GUZMAN!”
“How long were you in the house? I just need a time frame”
“Maybe 2 minutes…”
This situation is every parent’s very worst night. Fortunately, in this case, an official AMBER alert was issued about
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REVIEW OF LITERATURE
HISTORY OF THE AMBER ALERT
January 13, 1996, AMBER Hagerman was riding her bike in Arlington, TX with her little brother. She rode a short distance farther than she was supposed to and her brother turned around and went back home. In that short span of time, a driver of a black truck pulled up, picked up AMBER and drove away. Luckily a neighbor watched the incident and called the police immediately with a description of the truck. Unfortunately, her body was found 4 days later with her throat cut. She had been alive for 2 days before her death. Her death sparked an outcry from parents across the nation. Radio stations in the Dallas area were the first to answer that outcry. They teamed up with local law enforcement to help launch the first AMBER alert system. It was named in honor of AMBER Hagerman. The official name for an AMBER alert now is also America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response System. It wasn’t until 2009 that every state, District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands had an AMBER alert plan in place. Every state follows a set of suggested guidelines handed down from the Department of Justice. The first is to confirm the abduction. The second is to establish the risk of serious injury or bodily harm. In the case of stranger abduction, this is already established without further investigation. Third there must
A child being kidnapped is a parent’s worst nightmare. This happens to thousands of parents each year. For this, we have a system called, AMBER (America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response). This system has been around for almost twenty one years, saving hundreds of lives.
The process of issuing an Amber Alert had yet to be completed when, using alternative means, the children were found safe in Canton, according to Sheriff Timothy Zimmerly, who said investigators used GPS navigation to track the woman's cell phone, which was in the vehicle.
At 1048 hours, a second call came in to 911 from juvenile, Zach Michael Robins, 13 who reported a domestic dispute at his residence located at 900 Indiana Ave, Godfrey, IL 62035. He stated, "My parents are fighting and heading to the 1300 block of Virginia Avenue where my mother 's boyfriend lives."
The Dallas Amber Plan was started in 1997 to help safely recover missing children police believed to have been abducted. Since then, the program has successfully recovered eight children (State of Indiana Amber Alert Plan, 2010).
As covered in lecture, the e-text also stressed the importance of law enforcement operating with up-to-date with the technology. The e-text also discussed law enforcement at a state level. The North Dakota Public Alerts is a state agency as it serves to protect and aid the entire state of North Dakota, not just a specific jurisdiction of the state.
The establishment of the Amber Alert system proves that improvement for child abduction prevention is improving. Amber Alert is a system that notifies child abduction. When a person gets kidnapped users with a phone, tv or radio gets notified. Throughout the years child abduction laws have improved and the Amber Alert system is one of the many improvements. Lorenzi Neal’s "Keeping Baby Safe", discusses the systems used in United States hospitals to help prevent child abduction.
Before the Amber Alert, People from all over the United States had to rely on only the
"Get up," I yell at him. "In this car, in this family, we are not afraid of
The AMBER alert system is very well run and has saved a lot of children from possibly life altering situations. The only change that I would make is one of informational prevention. What I mean by that is we must inform the public, not only when an AMBER alert is emitted but before so we can prevent a possible situation. I believe this starts within the home, as parents they must monitor their children’s time online to ensure they are not talking to people who they are not supposed to be talking to. While the Internet is a great tool it is also a great medium for possible predators to begin to stalk your children. Parents must be aware of who their children are speaking to online to prevent the possibility of an abduction in the future. Other precautions are very simple as well, such as being aware of where they are and setting boundaries and rules of where they could be at certain times. Another precaution could be as simple as ensuring the child has an up to date Identification card. In the home, parents should also warn the children of possible dangers from strangers and possible situations that if they are found in a difficult situation how they should react. Parents must also be informed of the truth about abductions. According to kidshealth.org most children who are reported missing have run away or are just lost. Those who are truly abducted, most are taken by a family member or someone well trusted; the other 25% are taken by strangers. Lastly, the website informs us that most kids are in their teens when they are abducted. This information is crucial to helping prevent the possible abduction and should be readily available to all families in order to prevent situations like that of Amber
AMBER Alerts are issued after law enforcement determines that there has been abduction. Law enforcement must believe that the missing child is in danger of harm. An Alert can only be issued by law enforcement. Abductions by strangers are the most dangerous and are the primary mission of the Alert. AMBER Alerts are issued for children under the age of seventeen. Each state has its own age limits, but the majority uses seventeen as the cut off. Descriptive information is given of the missing child, the abductor, and the abductor’s vehicle used in the abduction. The missing child’s name is placed into the National Crisis Information Center (NCIC) system. Not only is the AMBER Alert named after Amber Hagerman, but AMBER also stands for America’s Missing Broadcast Emergency Response (Child Abduction, AMBER Alert, and Crime Control Theater).
The story of the tooth fairy has become a part of the cultural tradition of generations. Many American children discover the legend of the tooth fairy at an early age. Furthermore, this mythical tale explains the meaning behind children losing their baby teeth. It marks a rite of passage between infancy and early childhood. In the strictest sense of the definition of a myth, however, the tooth fairy does not qualify as a mythical story. It does not have all of the essential traits. So what precisely is a myth? The Greek word for myth is “mythos”, meaning “story.” According to Dr. Dennis Doyle, “A myth is a story that expresses the root meanings and values of a culture.” Although it may seem
Notes from the first video: Southern Gothic came from the Southern United States Developed in the early twentieth century Focuses on supernatural, sinister, and grotesque feelings as well as tensions between the North and South, societal order, and good/evil Some authors of Southern Gothic Literature include: William Faulkner, Harper Lee, and Flannery O’Conner Used in literary works to build suspense and show particular features of Southern life usually based on race and social class Gothic writers were interested in antisocial behaviors and rules of society Believes that daily life was faced in a disturbing way Many characters in gothic writing appear as: the town drunk, really odd, a criminal, a lawyer, Northern Carpetbaggers, ex-slaves, or a woman who has passed the normal age
An emergency call came in at 9:45 am made by Doug Greene who is a neighbor of the victim Anna Garcia claiming that he had not seen Anna Garcia since her normal morning walk at 6:30 am the previous morning and that the dog had been barking for 2 hours, he had also mentioned that Anna Garcia was wearing a sweater when he had seen her the previous morning while experiencing a 92 degree heat wave. Mr.Greene had called Anna’s telephone with no answer, and had also rang the doorbell with no answer. The EMT and local police had arrived to the scene at 9:56 am, needing to break the door down. EMS discovered Anna Garcia laying face down, dead.
In reviewing your suggested app, “Security Alert,” I felt your proposal was worth considering. With forty-percent of surveyed Americans feeling unsafe walking at night, this app could aid in reducing the anxieties associated with this fear as pointed out in your proposition (Sadd, 2011, para. 6). Furthermore, with three-fourths of surveyed parents stating that child abduction was a fear that they held and one-third of these parents admitting it was a worry that affected them frequently, this app could even further reduce anxieties (Bilich, n.d.). Consequently, decreasing the apprehension that one might feel. Therefore, this shrinking of one’s level of stress, could aid in the development of better physical and emotional health, subsequently lessening the risk of developing other stress-related disorders (Nevid, 2015, p. 357). Moreover, “Security Alert” could prove to be a valuable parenting support, should an actual abduction occur, as the “Red” option would allow for faster response time as also pointed out in the dissertation. Rapid response time is critical in the recovery of an abducted child, as seventy-four percent of slayings occur within the first three hours after an abduction (Bilich, n.d.).
Throughout time, issues with equality have denied groups some of the most basic human rights. A common example of this is the right to one’s own body. The statement that people have the rights his/her own body is very broad and rightfully so. It encompasses things ranging from what clothing they want to wear to whom they have sex with and even what gender they want to be. Within the film Difret, the ideas of gender equality, rape culture, and the right to one’s own body are highly prevalent. They are addressed through the use of a real story about a child who was abducted, raped, and fought to regain her freedom twice - once from her captors and then from the legal systems.