AMBER Alert Partners With Facebook

wiredmikey writes "The AMBER Alert program, credited with the safe recovery of 525 children across the country, has a new ally today: Facebook. Facebook users are able to sign up to receive AMBER Alert bulletins for their state which will be sent to them through the Facebook 'News Feed' feature. An estimated 800,000 children are reported missing every year. AMBER Alert is a voluntary partnership involving law-enforcement agencies and broadcasters. The new Facebook AMBER Alert pages represent an important expansion of the secondary distribution system and will enable AMBER Alerts to dramatically increase the reach of and impact of these life-saving bulletins."

Low success rate?

[betterunixthanunix]

525 children in total...when 800000 are reported missing each year? I think this program is going to need more than Facebook...

Re:Low success rate?

[devxo]

That's still 525 children, and they're exactly doing what they should - increase their exposure, currently via Facebook. But since you seem to have better ideas, do suggest them.

Re:Low success rate?

[Frosty Piss]

Indeed, the "Amber Alert" program is very much like the DARE program: Huge amounts of money are tossed at it, yet not only is their "success rate" tiny, but the program itself has serious political problems. Like DARE and its questionable association with the "War On Drugs", the Amber Alert program is seriously in bed with the Man Hating Feminist movement.

Re:Low success rate?

[icebike]

Children include anyone under 18. About 73 million in the US fall into that category.

Every sullen teenager that runs off and is reported "missing" is not abducted.

Most of those 800000 come slinking home (or at least report in) months or years later.

Re:Low success rate?

[ae1294]

That really doesn't sound like human compassion to me...

Re:Low success rate?

[Locke2005]

Wait... so more than 1% of American children are reported missing each year? Why haven't I heard of a single incident of any of the hundreds of kids I know of being reported missing? Your child stands a much higher chance of getting injured riding in the car with it's parents than of being abducted.

Re:Low success rate?

[jellomizer]

Being inefficient with tax payers money for a system that barely works, is not compassion. Could the money used used be put into an other program that could retrieve even more children. Like say 500,000 a year. I could buy an iPad to keep my face dry when it is raining. or I can get an umbrella for a lot less and it will do a better job.

Re:Low success rate?

[betterunixthanunix]

Actually, it is not a result of poisoning the data; AMBER alerts almost always fail in cases of children being abducted by people who plan to harm or kill them. The authors basically say that the success rate of AMBER is inflated by the inclusion of custodial cases, and that if those cases are excluded AMBER has a success rate that is nearly 0. AMBER has not actually augmented traditional police techniques in any meaningful way; in cases where traditional investigative methods fail, AMBER fails as well.

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