State Patrol says delay in Amber Alert mobile notification intentional, but glitch slowed system Monday

While the kidnapping of a 6-year-old Auburn boy triggered an Amber Alert earlier Monday morning, the notification didn’t go out to a system that prompts mobile phone alerts for over an hour. The supervisor of the system in Washington state says the delay is intentional.

The Washington State Patrol oversees the Amber Alert system in the state. As soon as King County deputies received the call Monday morning, they notified the state and an Amber Alert was issued. That set off notifications to media and signs on local roadways broadcast the information, says WSP Lt. Ron Mead, the section commander who oversees the system.

A national Amber Alert web portal quickly posted the information as well. But wireless notification is handled by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC). Mead says the state has adopted a policy of delaying notification to activate that system until it has more specific information.

“The system will never be activated unless there’s sufficient information that’s going to aid in the recovery of that child,” he says. “Once we got the plate associated with the Amber Alert, that’s when the wireless emergency alert was authorized.”

The policy was adopted after the state received widespread criticism for triggering an Amber Alert in the middle of the night.

“It’s very difficult to send out an alert to literally tens, if not hundreds of thousands of people, that isn’t going to provide specific enough information to aid in the location of the vehicle,” he says.

Monday’s Amber Alert didn’t trigger mobile devices until after 11 a.m., prompting some to wonder if the state had waited too long to activate the system. Mead says a computer glitch is to blame, with officials believing it had been activated at 9:48 a.m. As soon as the delay was discovered, the system was triggered.

“We’re dealing with computers and everything else and sometimes you hit a go button and things don’t go right away,” he says.

Despite efforts to limit the issuance of mobile notifications for Amber Alerts until more tangible information is available, the notifications still prompt some criticism from people complaining about the startling interruption blasting from their phones. But Mead says people need to realize how important they are, and encourages them not to turn off the alerts on the phone.

“Whatever inconvenience the alert causes people, I hope that people understand is offset by aiding in the recovery of a child that’s been abducted,” Mead says.