TACOMA — When police were looking for a special-needs teen who walked away from a bowling alley with a sex offender they made automated Amber Alert calls to 60,000 people in Tacoma at 4:20 a.m.
Wednesday was the first real-life crisis handled by the police department’s new Child Abduction Response Team. The system tried to call 148,000 numbers and reached 60,000 to ask help in locating the missing 16-year-old.
The News Tribune reports several people complained to Emergency Management about the early morning call. Some wanted to opt out, but that is not an option in the 911 database.
Police found the girl OK later Wednesday morning after receiving a tip. Police don’t know if the tip was generated by the robocalls or through Amber Alert broadcasts.
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