There are so many children kidnapped...it should be considered an emergency!
Franklin
Posted on 04/02/2002 12:47:51 PM PST by ATOMIC_PUNK
Utah to Use Beep for Kidnapped Kids
Utah Police, Broadcasters to Use Emergency Alert System for Kidnapped Kids
S A L T L A K E C I T Y, April 2 —
The familiar shrill beep employed by radio and TV stations to alert the public in an emergency will be used to help find kidnapped children in Utah.
The Rachel Alert program, announced on Tuesday, will use the state's Emergency Alert System to provide broadcasters information about an abducted child. TV stations can then incorporate the information into the "crawl" text at the bottom of the screen.
Utah is the ninth state to establish such a program, along with a number of cities and counties.
Utah's system was named for Rachel Runyan, a 3-year-old abducted in 1982 from a park near her home in Sunset. Her body was found 24 days later. The slaying remains unsolved.
"This is the next best honorable thing we can do for Rachel," said Sunset Police Chief Ken Eborn.
The program was adapted from the Amber Plan, named for Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old who was abducted and murdered in Texas in 1996.
To qualify, the child must be assumed kidnapped, must be 15 or younger or have a proven mental or physical disability, and must be in imminent danger of serious injury or death.
There must also be information provided to aid the police, such as a description of the abductor or his or her vehicle.
"I wish we'd had this program 20 years ago," said Rachel's mother, Elaine Runyan-Simmons. "If we just save one child it will be so worth it."
Here lie the bones of American: "If we saved one child it was worth it."
YOU dont have any kids do you ?
Like hell. Some of us that have beat the bushes looking for a child that has been abducted only to find out he or she was murdered got pissed off. Pissed off enough to organize with others and get these types of systems into place. Why? Because the friggin gov't could not get their act together. So some people kicked them in the shins until they did.
These type of things come from the ground up. Not from some gov't agency down. Are you familiar with the van Dam case in CA? Did you know that the search techniques that led to finding her body were developed by a couple from Texas who's daughter was murdered several years ago? Since their daughter was killed they have helped other families search for their abducted kids. I know the folks. Their child was butchered and they help others in many many ways.
"Smarmy emotionalism and quivering wussiness?" Think again! Snatch a kid from our neck of the woods and we will use this broadcast technique and other tools to hunt you down. So, devoids beware!
Read it again. It's not just handicapped kids. It's "healthy" kids of certain age groups AND/OR people with mental or physical problems. Even still there will be exceptions sometimes.
Remind me to buy you a coffe if ever we meet GREAT REPLY
I do. And before I'd support something like this, I'd like to know if it's been successful, even once, in rescuing an abducted child from imminent danger and returning him/her safely home. Personally, I have my doubts that something like this would do any good in the child-molestation type of midnight kidnappings such as the ones in California that ended in murder. Even in the case made famous by "Megan's Law" in New Jersey, the victim was spirited into the perpetrator's home, never to be seen alive again. Beeps and banners across community TV screens might make do-gooders feel good, but they're not likely to catch anybody but the occasional parent who decides to disobey a child-custody order.
By JAMES SALZER
Atlanta Journal-Constitution Staff Writer
Four years after Levi Frady was abducted and killed, Gov. Roy Barnes announced a child alert system in his memory.
The program, announced Tuesday, will allow the Georgia Bureau of Investigation to air information on TV and radio within minutes of an abduction, Barnes said. The system will be called Levi's Call.
"We believe his name will help a lot of children," said GBI special agent Jim Hallman, reading a statement from the slain 11-year-old boy's family. "This is a great tribute to his memory."
Levi left a friend's north Forsyth County house around dusk on Oct. 22, 1997. Investigators say his bicycle was found in a ditch about a mile from his home. The next day, hunters found his body along a remote gravel road in Dawson County. He had been shot three times.
Levi's Call will use the Emergency Alert System used to broadcast severe weather warnings.
When a parent reports a missing child, officials will decide if there was an abduction. They'll also decide whether the child is in danger and if there are enough descriptive details for broadcasting.
The system would not be used for runaways or children taken by noncustodial parents when the child is not in apparent danger.
If officers decide to use the system, information would go to the GBI and a bulletin would be sent to radio and TV stations. Broadcasters would be asked to air the alert at least twice the first hour and once an hour for three hours. The GBI would provide TV stations with the child's photo.
Barnes said every minute counts in abduction cases.
"A recent study by the United States Department of Justice concluded that 75 percent of children who were kidnapped and later murdered were killed within the first three hours after abduction," Barnes said.
Six other states, including Florida, have similar systems.
Who determines how the above restriction is enforced? And who's liable if a murderous abduction is mistaken for a custodial abduction? Waayyy too much gummermental gobbletygook in this to pass the common sense test.
In most parts of the country the police don't have very good communication between agencies. Or, as is their nature, they won't communicate sometimes on purpose. So, doing these type of things where the media is involved forces them to interact when they may not. Because sometimes getting them to do things together can be somewhat like herding cats.
Using these alerts also get the info. on the street faster and that includes the police on patrol. It gets their attention and since the system works in a larger geographic area the information spreads faster. Since you may have multiple agencies using multiple dispatch and call systems. Broadcasting all over the radio spectrum makes sense.
Have these type of systems done any good? I'll see if I can get some answers on that. As I mentioned before, I know a couple who's child was abducted and murdered. They have devoted themselves to helping others find abducted kids. They will know if this has been working.
You could chunk this type of system as far as I'm concerned if they would just kill the devoids or keep the devoids in jail. Or if they let them out tattoo their faces and arms bright red to at least give the kids a fighting chance. So they could see the devoids coming.
In Texas, like everywhere else I suspect, this type of system includes people in the private sector. Because it was the private sector that dreamed up this idea. And it's a good idea.
Here in New Jersey, I jumped right on the band wagon to be among the first to sign the petition to get "Megan's Law" kicked off. I regretted it five minutes after when I realized I had been intimidated by the guy standing there saying "How can you not sign this? Are you in favor of child molesters?" Since Megan's LAw was passed, we have no idea if any lives were saved, kids have still been murdered and victimized since then. But we do know that the lynch mob mentality fueled by mandatory disclosures have resulted in tens of severe beatings, a couple resulting in death - almost every one of them cases of mistaken identity, usually a male relative of the registered criminal who knows better than to come within ten miles of a house that has been "posted."
The answer isn't feel good, do nothing laws. The answer is tougher sentencing and better parenting.
This is not "do nothing". This is the private sector working with law enforcement to get the word out. The people I know that are involved in the alerts here in Texas get in the face of the LEO's. And they don't do it to "feel good". Some of these people have lost their own children to these devoids.
"Better Parenting"? In some cases I'd agree that the parents may have been boneheaded in not watching their children better but in many cases the parents had done everything they could to protect their child. That was the case for the couple I know.
In Texas, the alerts are broadcast using more than TV. Faxes, radio, etc. Lot's of media.
"Better sentencing"? I'm with you there. It's like the devoid in the link I posted above. He should have never got out. By the way, in that case this technique did little or nothing to help that I'm aware of. It was the information from a little girl the devoid had abducted. She was able to describe him, his car, the place he took her and a lot more. If I recall correctly she was 9 years old. I won't descirbe what he did to that child.
These "Emergency Alert Systems" are pretty new. Like several others things that are new to finding abducted kids I'd like to see it given a chance.
As far as your comments on Megans Law, you should read up on what has happened in the UK after they started publishing sex offender information in the newspaper. Some pretty radical stuff compared to the US.
For those here that have kids, watch them. Someone else might be.
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