mainman
Set Trippin
Monday, February 16, 2004
SARASOTA, Fla. — By the time an Amber Alert (search) was issued for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia (search), a full day had passed since the moment she was led away by a dark-haired stranger in an abduction that was videotaped by a security camera.
The alert on Feb. 2 caught the public's attention and is being credited with helping lead detectives to a suspect, Joseph P. Smith (search). But Carlie's body was found several days later, and now the alert system is under scrutiny for the ways it is used and the timing of its implementation.
The new attention to the 7-year-old system comes at a time when a national Amber Alert system is in the works and more police agencies are turning to alerts to find missing children.
While it is credited with helping rescue more than 120 children from kidnappers since 1996 -- including Wednesday's kidnapping of month-old Jesse Peaster, who was found safe just hours he was taken from his home near Lincoln, Mo. -- records show the use of the alert system has been haphazard.
Some police departments have been quick to issue alerts when a child isn't in danger, while other agencies such as Sarasota have been more conservative in their approach and not issued alerts quickly, even when a child's life was at stake.
The Justice Department says time is of the essence in abductions, citing statistics that show three-quarters of the children killed by their kidnappers are slain within the first three hours of their disappearance.
Among the critics of the Amber Alert system is Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped from her mother's California home and slain in 1993.
Klaas said most police agencies are too slow to issue Amber Alerts, for one thing because states must have each other's permission to broadcast cross-border Amber Alerts.
"Little girls are dying out there and somebody better be there speaking up for them," said Klaas, who owns a company that provides Amber Alert services in three states. "Maybe that is the legacy of Carlie Brucia. She can instruct kids for generations to come on how easy it is for an innocent child to be kidnapped."
The alert system, named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and killed in Arlington, Texas, is in use in 47 states. The three states that don't use it -- Alaska, Hawaii and North Carolina -- are close to implementing the system, said Deborah Daniels, the assistant U.S. attorney general overseeing the national alert program.
The alert system uses a state's emergency notification system to give broadcasters a description of a missing child and of a suspect's vehicle. That description is also displayed on electronic highway signs and, in some states, on the scrolling message of electronic lottery machines.
Most states have guidelines requiring police to determine that a kidnapping has taken place and that a child is in danger before issuing an alert.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said it followed such state guidelines in Carlie's case, but by the time that process was complete she already had missing for a day.
Sarasota officials said they don't want to issue too many alerts and have the public start ignoring them.
Carlie's family said earlier this month they are not angry at the sheriff's office for not issuing the alert sooner. But they said they were frustrated that when they tried to get the word out themselves they were told nothing could be done until the sheriff's office confirmed a kidnapping.
"You can't issue one on your everyday normal runaway case," said Donna Hodges, director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Missing Children Information Clearinghouse, which disseminates Amber Alerts sent in by police departments.
Police in the Panhandle town of Niceville issued an alert last month for 15-year-old girl, then learned two days later she had run off with a boyfriend.
Niceville police Lt. Jason Fulghum said the department doesn't regret its decision.
"Looking back on it, you wish that you had not sent out the manpower," he said. "A lot of investigators went through some sleepless nights searching for her. But you are so relieved that she is safe and so relieved that it's not the worse-case scenario."
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SARASOTA, Fla. — By the time an Amber Alert (search) was issued for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia (search), a full day had passed since the moment she was led away by a dark-haired stranger in an abduction that was videotaped by a security camera.
The alert on Feb. 2 caught the public's attention and is being credited with helping lead detectives to a suspect, Joseph P. Smith (search). But Carlie's body was found several days later, and now the alert system is under scrutiny for the ways it is used and the timing of its implementation.
The new attention to the 7-year-old system comes at a time when a national Amber Alert system is in the works and more police agencies are turning to alerts to find missing children.
While it is credited with helping rescue more than 120 children from kidnappers since 1996 -- including Wednesday's kidnapping of month-old Jesse Peaster, who was found safe just hours he was taken from his home near Lincoln, Mo. -- records show the use of the alert system has been haphazard.
Some police departments have been quick to issue alerts when a child isn't in danger, while other agencies such as Sarasota have been more conservative in their approach and not issued alerts quickly, even when a child's life was at stake.
The Justice Department says time is of the essence in abductions, citing statistics that show three-quarters of the children killed by their kidnappers are slain within the first three hours of their disappearance.
Among the critics of the Amber Alert system is Marc Klaas, the father of Polly Klaas, who was kidnapped from her mother's California home and slain in 1993.
Klaas said most police agencies are too slow to issue Amber Alerts, for one thing because states must have each other's permission to broadcast cross-border Amber Alerts.
"Little girls are dying out there and somebody better be there speaking up for them," said Klaas, who owns a company that provides Amber Alert services in three states. "Maybe that is the legacy of Carlie Brucia. She can instruct kids for generations to come on how easy it is for an innocent child to be kidnapped."
The alert system, named for 9-year-old Amber Hagerman, who was kidnapped and killed in Arlington, Texas, is in use in 47 states. The three states that don't use it -- Alaska, Hawaii and North Carolina -- are close to implementing the system, said Deborah Daniels, the assistant U.S. attorney general overseeing the national alert program.
The alert system uses a state's emergency notification system to give broadcasters a description of a missing child and of a suspect's vehicle. That description is also displayed on electronic highway signs and, in some states, on the scrolling message of electronic lottery machines.
Most states have guidelines requiring police to determine that a kidnapping has taken place and that a child is in danger before issuing an alert.
The Sarasota County Sheriff's Office said it followed such state guidelines in Carlie's case, but by the time that process was complete she already had missing for a day.
Sarasota officials said they don't want to issue too many alerts and have the public start ignoring them.
Carlie's family said earlier this month they are not angry at the sheriff's office for not issuing the alert sooner. But they said they were frustrated that when they tried to get the word out themselves they were told nothing could be done until the sheriff's office confirmed a kidnapping.
"You can't issue one on your everyday normal runaway case," said Donna Hodges, director of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Missing Children Information Clearinghouse, which disseminates Amber Alerts sent in by police departments.
Police in the Panhandle town of Niceville issued an alert last month for 15-year-old girl, then learned two days later she had run off with a boyfriend.
Niceville police Lt. Jason Fulghum said the department doesn't regret its decision.
"Looking back on it, you wish that you had not sent out the manpower," he said. "A lot of investigators went through some sleepless nights searching for her. But you are so relieved that she is safe and so relieved that it's not the worse-case scenario."
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