[BC] AMBER Study

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Here's the Scripps Howard News Service story about the study on Amber Alerts:

False alarms endangering future of Amber Alert system
By THOMAS HARGROVE
Scripps Howard News Service
05-JUL-05

Twelve-year-old Larry Anthony Fountain just happened to leave his backpack 
on a South Carolina school playground, triggering a statewide Amber Alert 
that falsely reported his kidnapping. Police in Arkansas issued an alert 
for 6-year-old Adrian Lee Justice even though they knew he was lost in the 
woods, not abducted.

They are just two of dozens of recent Amber Alerts that should never have 
been issued, even according to the most ardent advocates for missing children.

Amber Alerts are supposed to be "a fire bell in the night" _ a rare 
application of emergency radio and television alert systems to rescue 
kidnapped children in the critical first minutes after they've been 
abducted by strangers.

But nearly a decade after the kidnapping and murder of 9-year-old Amber 
Hagerman sparked the nationwide system, a Scripps Howard News Service study 
has found that police are flagrantly overusing the alerts meant to prevent 
more deaths like hers. False alarms are so widespread that many advocates 
now say they fear that the public will start tuning out the bulletins _ 
even when children are in real danger.

Police last year issued at least 48 Amber Alerts for children who had not 
actually been kidnapped, often defying federal and state guidelines on how 
the system should be used, according to Scripps Howard's study.

Traditional cases of abduction _ children taken by strangers or who were 
unlawfully traveling with adults other than their legal guardians _ 
accounted for less than a third of the Amber Alerts issued in 2004.

Out of 233 Amber Alerts issued last year, at least 46 were made for 
children who were lost, had run away or were the subjects of hoaxes and 
misunderstandings, according to the Scripps Howard study, which used 
records from the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. That's 
despite the urgings of the U.S. Justice Department that Amber Alerts be 
used only in cases of kidnapping and only when the child is in immediate 
danger of physical harm.

Police also violated federal and state guidelines by issuing dozens of 
vague alerts with little information upon which the public can act. The 
study found that 23 alerts were issued last year even though police didn't 
know the name of the child who supposedly had been abducted. Twenty-five 
alerts were issued without complete details about the suspect or a 
description of the vehicle used in the abduction.

Advocates for missing children worry that misuse of the system could erode 
the credibility of Amber Alerts in the public's mind.

"We thought the Amber Alert was going to change the whole way we get our 
missing children back," said John Walsh, host of TV's "America's Most 
Wanted" and the father of a child who was kidnapped and murdered. "But 
we're finding some states don't know how to do this. Some have written 
their own bizarre criteria that completely negates the intention of the 
Amber Alert."

As founder of the Louisiana-based Code Amber, an Internet service that 
tracks Amber Alerts nationwide, Bryant Harper sees the problems as 
potentially devastating for the program.

"I'm afraid the system is going to implode," Harper said. "Amber Alerts are 
going to be used more and more, often in inappropriate ways. And the more 
they are used when not warranted, the more people will start ignoring them."

Some state officials are also concerned.

"An Amber Alert is a fire bell in the night, a call to action. We want 
people to be on the lookout," North Carolina alert coordinator Perry 
Stewart said. "If we don't have sufficient descriptive information, do we 
really need to issue an Amber Alert and get people in an uproar?"

Stewart last month refused a request by a South Carolina sheriff to 
rebroadcast that state's alert for 2-year-old Trinity Nicole Casey, later 
found drowned in a lake near her home. Stewart said the South Carolina 
alert was too vague, lacking any proof the girl had been abducted. "I don't 
want our system so diluted that people see these alerts as a nuisance," he 
said.

The Scripps Howard study determined that similarly flawed Amber Alerts were 
issued in Arkansas, Florida, Illinois, Michigan, Missouri, Ohio, Tennessee 
and Texas.

All 50 states have adopted some form of the Amber Alert, usually giving 
police authority to use the Emergency Alert System to interrupt radio and 
television programming to announce a kidnapping. The program began 
informally when radio stations in the Dallas-Fort Worth area agreed to 
issue alerts after Amber Hagerman's brutal slaying in 1996.

"Amber Alerts have become an increasingly important tool in rescuing 
kidnapped children by quickly getting key information about the missing 
child and about the suspect out to the public," President Bush said while 
signing the 2003 law that helped states establish Amber Alert programs.

The law provided grant money to states and created the post of a federal 
alert coordinator empowered "to set clear and uniform voluntary standards 
for the use of Amber Alerts across our country," Bush said.

Under the Justice Department's recommended criteria, Amber Alerts should be 
issued only when police:
_ Have a "reasonable belief" that an abduction of a child has occurred.
_ Are convinced the missing child is "at risk for serious bodily harm or 
death."
_ Have "sufficient descriptive information" about the victim, suspect or 
vehicle used in the kidnapping so that the public can assist police in 
locating the child.

"Of course, there are going to be some calls that turn out to be false 
alarms," said former Assistant Attorney General Deborah J. Daniels, the 
nation's first Amber Alert coordinator. "But we hope for at least partial 
information in the alert itself. If there is nothing for citizens to go on, 
the alert really doesn't do any good. Law-enforcement agencies have to make 
their best judgments."

The Scripps Howard study also found that alerts were issued for 117 
children (50 percent) who where categorized as "family abductions" by the 
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children. Many of these involved 
custody disputes between divorcing or estranged parents. Only 70 alerts (30 
percent) were categorized as "non-family abductions."

According to Justice Department guidelines issued last year, "stranger 
abductions are the most dangerous for children and thus are primary to the 
mission of an Amber Alert." But the policy does not tell police what to do 
when a child is taken in a custody dispute.

"We did not specify that we wanted Amber Alerts issued only for 
stereotypical stranger abductions," Daniels said. "After all, there are 
plenty of cases in which parental abduction is dangerous."

Police concede that they sometimes struggle in family-abduction cases to 
prove that a child in the company of the father or mother is truly in 
imminent danger.

"It's a no-win situation for us," said Lt. L.D. Maples, coordinator of the 
Amber Alert program for California, where 64 percent of last year's alarms 
were cases of alleged family abduction. "Someone has taken the kids without 
the rights to have them. It may not be the stereotypical abduction, but the 
parent is still playing the part of an abductor."

Maples said he sometimes must defend alerts he's issued, particularly in 
parental cases. "We are asked, 'Why was this an abduction?' We refer the 
question back to the local police agency, which has sworn that the case met 
all of the necessary criteria."

In the 48 cases in which Amber Alerts were issued for children whom police 
later determined were not kidnapped, authorities were often forced to 
retract the bulletins or to say the youths were "recovered" after 
misunderstandings among family members had been sorted out. (In at least 
two cases, the alerts were canceled after police found the children were in 
the company of their grandparents.)

Confusion by witnesses who misunderstood what they had observed was a 
common source of erroneous Amber Alerts.

"In my opinion, it's better to err on the side of caution and issue an 
alert," said Montgomery County, Texas, Sheriff's Lt. Joe Sclider. "But, 
frequently, you are damned if you do and damned if you don't."

Sclider on June 16 issued an Amber Alert for a "white female, 5- to 
8-years-old with shoulder-length brown hair" after two young girls playing 
in their front yard thought they saw a girl being forced into a black van 
against her will. He canceled the alert the next day when no one in the 
Houston area stepped forward to report a missing child.

"This could have been the case of a parent picking up a young child who 
didn't want to go to day care," Sclider said.

About a third of the 32 Texas alerts in the Scripps Howard study were cases 
in which, apparently, no one was kidnapped. More than a quarter of the 
Texas alerts also were issued with scanty information _ either lacking the 
victim's name or with little or no description of the suspects.

Texas officials conceded that some of the Amber Alerts issued in their 
state last year did not meet state standards. "Local law-enforcement 
agencies must confirm they've made an investigation and that they believe 
an abduction has taken place. Beyond that, it's their call," said Tela 
Mange, a spokeswoman for the Texas Department of Public Safety.

Officials in several other states also said they have little authority to 
deny a local police department's request for an alert. Both of South 
Carolina's alerts last year lacked any description of a suspect or a 
vehicle used in the alleged abduction.

"We can only put out the information the locals give us," said Kathryn 
Richardson, a spokeswoman for the South Carolina Law Enforcement Division.

She said that's why South Carolina issued a statewide alert for Larry 
Anthony Fountain after his abandoned backpack was found on the playground 
of his middle school. Neighbors, after hearing the alert, found the boy 
walking along a road near his home. He reportedly left the schoolyard 
because he was upset at receiving a detention.

Unlike these states, officials in Florida frequently refuse to authorize 
Amber Alerts sought by
local police. The state issued 22 alerts last year while denying 24 requests.

Still, an alert was issued because someone reported seeing a teenager being 
forced into the trunk of a car. It turned out to be a youthful prank in an 
overcrowded car. "There wasn't enough room for all of the kids to fit in 
the passenger seats," said Lee Condon, coordinator of the Florida Missing 
and Exploited Children Clearinghouse.

Also, the study found that five of the Florida alerts were vague, including 
alarms for an "unknown white male, 4-years-old" and for a "9- or 
10-year-old black female." In four of these alerts, no abduction occurred.

Some states have adopted Amber Alert policies that clearly ignore the 
federal guidelines requiring evidence of abduction. Arkansas State Police 
spokesman Bill Sadler said an alert was issued for Adrian Lee Justice last 
year, even though authorities knew the boy was lost in the woods. Adrian 
was located about a mile from his home.

In that case, police issued what they call a "level two" alert, a unique 
kind of alarm in Arkansas that does not interrupt radio and television 
programming but does send official advisories to news organizations 
throughout the state that a child is missing.

Despite the flaws in the program, many of the Amber Alerts issued last year 
involved serious cases of child abduction. The Justice Department credits 
last year's alerts with helping to recover 71 missing children. In several 
cases, abductors decided to free the children in their custody after seeing 
their photographs on television.

Federal authorities agree that mistakes have been made, but Daniels said, 
"It is very difficult for police to make these calls. They are under 
tremendous pressure from terrified parents to issue an Amber Alert. While 
we strongly urged police not to overuse these alerts, we also advise them 
to err on the side of caution. They should issue an alert if there is a 
good chance a child is in danger."