Amber Alerts Go Online
from the gotta-find-those-kids dept
Last year was the year of "missing kids" (even if, statistically, the number of kidnapped kids was decreasing). A lot of attention has been paid to the "Amber Alert" system that has been put in place to let people know when a kidnapping has occurred in a certain area (even to the point where you can get an Amber Alert on your mobile phone). Now, however, police are saying that the system may be too much - as they're often inundated with phone calls when an Amber Alert goes out, and they can't handle all the requests for info. Their latest solution is to set up a website and urge people to get information from the website rather than in to find out more. What's most interesting to me, though, is that it appears most of the people are calling to get more information, rather than to provide the police with information. That seems to against the point of the Amber Alert. If the police are being deluged with requests for info, they're likely to miss the info that they actually need to find the kidnappers.
Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.
Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.
While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.
–The Techdirt Team
