The article is long but comprehensive, please see if for the full discussion.
Agencies tout very high success rates, but some experts compare it to “crime control theatre”
On Sunday, March 22 of this year, a large swath of the population in Quebec was woken up at 4:25 a.m. as cellphones lit up and screamed. An Amber alert had been broadcast. Less than four hours later, the two missing children were thankfully found, unharmed, and the alert was cancelled.
Amber alerts cast wide nets in an effort to find abducted children and teenagers, but each time one is transmitted in Canada, we go through a predictable cycle. Many complain that these alerts cannot be turned off or muted, even in sleep mode, and that waking people up in the middle of the night to help them find a specific car that was last spotted 200 kilometres away is unnecessarily disruptive—with some even calling 911 to complain. Meanwhile, law enforcement officials remind us through the media that these alerts are only used when necessary and that they save lives.
Any subject tied to the safety of children is bound to evoke the deepest emotions. In fact, the crime that led to the creation of Amber alerts—and to their name—was monstrous enough that it’s no wonder it rallied influential people into building a system that could potentially prevent this kind of crime.
But warranted emotions aside, do Amber alerts even work? What little data we do have point to a system that has likely been oversold to us.
Y’all spend fucking hours gooning, doom scrolling and posting about what your damn cat did each day. What can’t handle a 10-second interruption to your t-girl jerk hour?
Amber alerts aren’t emergency warnings. If you chose to ignore a warning about a tornado or a possible flood, that’s your problem. But out there is a kid that might need help, and all you’re asked to do is to report if you see something suspicious that’s matches the description.
If it means one less kid is going to end up on kiddie diddly island or found in a ditch, then send those alerts all day.
I thank you for your sacrifice and devastating hardship you have to face each time you get an amber alert like once or twice a year.
My main issue with Amber Alerts is that they’re not mutable. If my phone is screaming at me, I’m going to hit mute before reading what’s on the phone. When I hit mute, the alert is gone. It’s simply nowhere to be found. I can’t read it in my notifications panel. It’s gone.
It needs to show up as both an alert AND a notification. It’s crazy that this isn’t standard (in android, at least).
Now i see why the uk got one about not lighting barbeques, they were copying all of you.
I turned it off
What? Was this about Gas leak or something?
Forest fires, so the government sent everyone an urgent warning to stop using disposable barbeques.
I haven’t got an amber alert in a long time. Probably because the first woke everyone up at two AM. Next morning the child was found safe with the parent who had legal custody the whole time. Now they have so many checks in place that the alters are almost never worth sending
I live in New Hampshire and Maine was so terrible with their amber/safety alerts that I shut them off entirely on my phone. I remember getting woken up at 2 or 3am for an abducted child, they knew it was a parent. Later they sent out an ‘extreme’ (whatever the highest level is) threat to human life after a road rage incident where 1 guy shot another guy at an intersection. I was 150 miles away. That is a heck of a radius to set for one guy with a pistol. They ought to save extreme for when a meteor is headed for us or something.
How’d you turn yours off? They use a protocol on the phones that are designed so the user is unable to turn them off. Do you use a custom OS? -Or do you mean that you shut your entire phone off?
On my Pixel, stock os:
- settings
- safety & emergency
- wireless emergency alerts
Sounds like the system needs tweaking to be less disruptive. Maybe with some actual rules on usage and reach? Especially restrictions on alerts during sleeping hours
Nobody wants to be on the receiving end of “WELL WHY DIDN’T THEY ISSUE AN AMBER ALERT???” when a kid is found dead.
Shut mine off the first time it warned me in the middle of the night about something happening 400 miles away.
Police gotta stop crying wolf.
As per the article, in Canada, Amber Alerts are sent at the top level. Meaning even if your phone lets you set different sounds for different levels of government alert, Amber Alerts are sent at the “Your life is in imminent danger if you don’t take immediate action” level every time.
I “hacked” my phone to disable the system, then downloaded an app that sends me equivalent notifications with the sound effects of my choosing.
Could you tell us what that app is?
And yes, the fact that they blast out amber alerts at the same level as “imminent nuclear attack” is unbelievably stupid. There’s no justification for it whatsoever.
Í live in Fort Worth, why the hell do I get amber alerts for Houston!? That’s a 6 hour drive at least…
Howdy neighborino
“Here’s Jose Flanders!”
“Buenos ding dong diddly Diaz senor!”
Amber alerts may not come out immediately when a child disappears. It could be hours later. It’s better that people are aware of a beat up red Toyota Camry that is expected to be transporting and abducted child than not.
The article says if a child is harmed, it usually happens within the first three hours.
Ok? Does that mean we should stop searching after 3 hours?
You guys get so many interesting alerts. They really use it for a missing kid? Its just tsunami warning, rain warning or smoke warning for us.
Luckily the alerts can be turned off in the US. I don’t want to be woken up for something hundreds of miles away.
Am in the US and that is not the case.
Well, it may depend on your phone and os version, it wasn’t always the case.
