[EAS] BLU Alert Comments.

[Sean Donelan]

On Thu, 3 Aug 2017, Ed Czarnecki wrote:
> And as their director noted during the briefing, that's only the cases 
> they can definitively trace to an EAS activation.  They're feeling is 
> that the number of child recoveries due to EAS is actually even higher.

Since many EAS Amber Alert activations don't include any actual 
information, I'm surprised its as high as it is. In many cases the 
90-character WEA message has more details than the EAS message. News
reports fill in the rest of the information after the EAS alert.

I'd like to understand the WEA statistics better. I don't know how many 
total WEA Amber Alerts have been issued, so I don't know what 40 children 
means for the effectiveness of WEA, other than its more than zero.

NCMEC mixes together reports from law enforcement and the public in its 
statistics, so its difficult to distinguish what effect the public Amber 
Alert versus more effective law enforcement coordination. This is 
relevant for Blue Alerts because there is a public alert and a 
law-enforcement component of the alert.

I still think better inter-agency coordination between law enforcement 
agencies has been more important for Amber Alerts than the public alert 
itself. I expect the same will happen with Blue Alerts.

Of the 25%, or so, of Amber Alert cases

43%	Individual or law enforcement recognized vehicle
19%	Law enforcement received tips from individuals
17%	Individual or law enforcement recognized child and/or abductor
13%	Abductor heard alert and released child
9%	Individual knew of abductor's and/or child's whereabouts