Experts say there isn’t a child abduction epidemic going on in this country right now. The numbers appear to support that, but it’s no consolation to the parents of children who’ve been kidnapped or to the many Americans afraid to let their young ones play in their own front yards.
Epidemic or no epidemic, the widely touted Amber Alert system has proved itself to be successful in helping law officers track down criminals and save children before it’s too late. Washington shouldn’t wait much longer to join the 13 other states that already have adopted the emergency public notification system.
King County, Seattle and Skagit County are putting programs into place. Fortunately, Snohomish County is on the same track and working to make the program statewide. In order for it to be truly successful here or in any county, we need the entire state to be involved. As Snohomish County Sheriff Rick Bart pointed out, this system is intended to notify the public and must be sensitive to the amount of time that has lapsed between the abduction and public notification. It doesn’t make sense to have jurisdictions doing different things. Kidnappers don’t stay in one county. They travel fast. Information needs to travel even faster.
Look at the recent case involving one-month-old Nancy Crystal Chavez, who was taken from a Wal-Mart parking lot in Texas and found unharmed more than 100 miles away. Her abductor’s car was spotted by a sheriff who noticed that it matched a description sent out on a statewide Amber Alert.
And, of course, the case involving two young women from California who were abducted and probably minutes away from being killed — again, an Amber Alert was issued and law enforcement, acting on tips, found the teens alive.
Several attempted abductions in our own county offer evidence we’re not immune. This isn’t something that happens "somewhere else."
The trick will be to find a way to pay for a statewide program here. It takes computer systems that send information speedily from police agencies to local media outlets and transportation road signs. That equipment could be costly. Add to that the cost of building and installing more electronic road signs in other parts of the state. It isn’t clear how much all this will cost. Law enforcement will have to get those numbers out soon.
Amber Alert proponents will be asking the Legislature for money next year. It wouldn’t hurt if people, including the media outlets that would be participating, got behind the program and offered their support first.
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