These AMBER alerts are out of control

[HansonBro]

For those that dont know, the amber alert is some god awful text that goes off on your phone typically at 2am when all the stupid people are being stupid, to notify the world a child has gone missing. The rest of us are sleeping. Then you get another one 20 minutes later, and then another one 30 minutes later just to make sure you didnt sleep. Its no normal text sound either, its an annoying alarm sound...

Id be fine with a normal text alerting me to little Timmy's disappearance but this shit is going overboard. My friend who lives 8 hours away got the same alert...like how the hell is he gonna spot some kid from Toronto 8 hours away in a Prius?

Click to read more...

 

[Spirit of 67]

I've been thinking about this since the previous one.

I think they need to have some sort of system whereby you can turn off the alarm for some things, at some times but not others.

What I mentioned to someone is, if it's 3am I don't need an Amber alert waking me up. Unless the people being sought are in my bedroom, I won't find them. Not until I head out for work.
So if the alert is on my phone when I wake up, that's great. Just no noise between 11pm and 5am.
I have my DND set so I don't get the alarm on my phone, anyway.

However, the problem becomes, what if it's a tornado warning? I need that waking me up.

It's good that we have a system. It needs some work I think.

 

[JMCx4]

Just another curse of 24/7 connectivity.

 

[Bones Malone]

I thought those told us where we could find preserved prehistoric mosquitoes ripe with dinosaur dna?

 

[Sypher04]

It's not perfect, per se, but if the amber alerts as designed currently save even a single child they are 100% worth every person they wake up.

 

[Knave]

It's not perfect, per se, but if the amber alerts as designed currently save even a single child they are 100% worth every person they wake up.

Maybe we should send them to Chinese cellphones in China because it might save a life and you never know, the person may have teleported around the world with the child they kidnap because the moronic Pejorative Slured f***s at Toronto Police have no concept or understanding of travel time and need to alert people hundreds of miles away.

The Simpsons-esque "what about the kids" rings hollow. Why can't these police departments think of the kids? People are going to ignore these alerts if they're alerting people in Ottawa about missing children west of Toronto. What? The kid and their abductor hopped into a car and did 100+KM/H, ignored traffic and went straight to Ottawa? It's absurd.

 

[Sypher04]

Maybe we should send them to Chinese cellphones in China because it might save a life and you never know, the person may have teleported around the world with the child they kidnap because the moronic ******ed ****s at Toronto Police have no concept or understanding of travel time and need to alert people hundreds of miles away.

There are several factors that go into the issuing of an amber alert and where. At the time an amber alert is issued a child could have already been missing for several hours, and they may not be found yet after that for a lot more. Casting a wide net with the amber alert is smart.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

It's very possible that they don't know when or where the child went missing.

 

[Knave]

"Brantford police reported them last seen on Thursady around 12:18 a.m. in a vehicle with two adult females. The car was located by the Hamilton police, but the two were missing."

Explain to me how you can get to Ottawa in under 4 hours from Brantford. A trip that takes over 5 hours in perfect traffic and weather conditions.

 

[Sypher04]

"Brantford police reported them last seen on Thursady around 12:18 a.m. in a vehicle with two adult females. The car was located by the Hamilton police, but the two were missing."

Explain to me how you can get to Ottawa in under 4 hours from Brantford. A trip that takes over 5 hours in perfect traffic and weather conditions.

The amber alert is not only about reaching the people who are where the child is currently. That's ideally what they want obviously, but if you can't get info on current whereabouts, then you'd like people in areas they could reach soon being aware of the child being missing too.
It's very clearly meant to make public aware in a larger area so that should they end up elsewhere people will know to phone it in.

 

[Knave]

There are several factors that go into the issuing of an amber alert and where. At the time an amber alert is issued a child could have already been missing for several hours, and they may not be found yet after that for a lot more. Casting a wide net with the amber alert is smart.

It's stupid as evidenced by the fact they're always found close to home and the Amber Alert going out to people hours before they could possibly be in most of the notification areas. All it's going to do is cause people to ignore their phones. I've already shut off the sound and vibrating of those messages because of the Toronto Police abusing the emergency alert system.

 

[bert]

Are you one of those people that called the police over a text letting you know that a child was missing? If so block me. Actually if you are in this thread and are complaining about the amber alert just block me. Also grow up.

 

[Knave]

The amber alert is not only about reaching the people who are where the child is currently. That's ideally what they want obviously, but if you can't get info on current whereabouts, then you'd like people in areas they could reach soon being aware of the child being missing too.
It's very clearly meant to make public aware in a larger area so that should they end up elsewhere people will know to phone it in.

That's not the point of the system.

 

[Sypher04]

That's not the point of the system.

Yes it is. The system is an alert meant to make people aware if they see these people to call the police. Whether that happens 3 mins after the alert goes out because they are across the street from them, or 3 hours later because they arrived in Ottawa makes no difference. Unless a follow up is issued to the amber alert saying the child was found, they want anyone who sees them, anywhere, to phone it in.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

Sure, it's impossible to make it from Brantford to Ottawa in 4 hours. That doesn't make the child any less missing.

 

[Knave]

Are you one of those people that called the police over a text letting you know that a child was missing? If so block me. Actually if you are in this thread and are complaining about the amber alert just block me. Also grow up.

No because unlike you and a few others and the minority murdering Toronto Police, there is a nuance, physics and many other things in life. The Amber Alert system can be improved.

 

[Sypher04]

There have been 6 amber alert instances since the system came online, 6 months ago.
I'm sorry you feel so inconvenienced by the search for a missing child. But no one cares about your inconvenience.
It's worth it. Every time.

 

[Sega Dreamcast]

Okay, so let's say the government decides to turn off the alarm on Amber Alerts between midnight and 7am. The alerts still show up on your phone, but the alert doesn't trigger any noise.

Now, an Amber Alert gets issued at night. The people that are awake and capable of helping (which is a smaller number, because it's night) largely miss the alert because their phone didn't make noise.

However, if we try it the other way, with the users having control, too many people will simply turn the alerts off.

 

[Knave]

There have been 6 amber alert instances since the system came online, 6 months ago.
I'm sorry you feel so inconvenienced by the search for a missing child. But no one cares about your inconvenience.
It's worth it. Every time.

Really? Because as far as I'm aware the kid was either already murdered by their father or it was a huge misunderstanding and there was no abduction. I would say that's a pretty big failure for a system designed to save children.

People fixated on the 911 complainers after that 11 year old girl was murdered and not why the police didn't send over a car to the father's apartment immediately (where she was found).

I don't care if the system makes you feel good. It's been a failure. The only thing it has been good for is alerting me to how dangerously incompetent Toronto Police is. They needed a citizen's tip to check the father's own apartment.

 

[Knave]

Okay, so let's say the government decides to turn off the alarm on Amber Alerts between midnight and 7am. The alerts still show up on your phone, but the alert doesn't trigger any noise.

Now, an Amber Alert gets issued at night. The people that are awake and capable of helping (which is a smaller number, because it's night) miss the alert because their phone didn't make noise.

However, we can't have it the other way, with the users having control, because then too many people would outright turn the alerts off.

You can turn it off. I have.

I'm not saying put it on silent mode. I'm saying Amber Alerts are for children thought to be in immediate, imminent danger. Why are people 5 hours away getting alerts to be on the look out 5 hours from now when the child/suspect could potentially arrive in Ottawa? Why not expand the area of the alert as needed?

 

[McNuge]

Grow up... They've already proved they work very well. You know how you can not get them? Put your phone in silent or on vibrate. "Wannnn my poor sleep cycle I have a hard time falling asleep after". Shut up you sound like a baby.

 

[Knave]

Grow up... They've already proved they work very well. You know how you can not get them? Put your phone in silent or on vibrate. "Wannnn my poor sleep cycle I have a hard time falling asleep after". Shut up you sound like a baby.

If it's so great why don't we also wake up everyone in Ontario for anyone with mental health issues thought to be in distress? Why not wake people up every time a missing person case is announced? If it's so incredibly successful we should expand this program immediately and save many more lives.

 

[McNuge]

If it's so great why don't we also wake up everyone in Ontario for anyone with mental health issues thought to be in distress? Why not wake people up every time a missing person case is announced? If it's so incredibly successful we should expand this program immediately and save many more lives.

Because of people like you who are calling 911 complaining they are getting woken up. Amber alerts were specifically brought in to effect because of a missing girl and it is the plan in place for missing children at the moment. Kids usually get taken by people within their own family and are transported via car. So sending out a message with the cars description and license plate can do wonders really quickly.

 

[Knave]

Because of people like you who are calling 911 complaining they are getting woken up. Amber alerts were specifically brought in to effect because of a missing girl and it is the plan in place for missing children at the moment. Kids usually get taken by people within their own family and are transported via car. So sending out a message with the cars description and license plate can do wonders really quickly.

That's how they're supposed to use the Amber Alert system. That is not how police have been using it so far this year. They routinely violate the 4 conditions to send out an Amber Alert when they want to and then rescind the alert when they feel like it because "it does not meet the 4 criteria".

 

[super6646]

Because data f***ing sucks in this country, I have to put my phone on 3G if I want to have any chance of lasting the month without going over the cap. As it turns out, alerts can’t be sent out through that spectrum (just thought it would be interesting to point this out).

Anyway, I’m not all that sympathetic when there is always the option to put the phone on airplane mode or whatever for the night. It’s not like you should be on your phone in the middle of the night in bed anyway.