Results: Amber Alert Backlash

Peel Regional Police issued an Amber Alert at around 11:30 p.m. on Feb. 14, triggering thousands of Ontarians' phones to alert them of missing 11-year-old Riya Rajkumar. The alert system is designed to widely disseminate information about a missing person, usually a child, through cellphones, television and radio broadcasts, and electronic roadway signs. As a direct result of someone receiving the alert, the police were able to locate the suspect (the father) and his vehicle. Tragically, Riya was located deceased at a residence in Brampton, and her father Roopesh Rajkumar was located and arrested, about an hour after the initial Amber Alert went out. Did you hear and respond to this Amber Alert?

The Amber Alert came over cell phones, TV stations and radio stations -- it was loud with an alarm sound and then talking about the alert. In the wake of the first alert, Peel Regional Police became inundated with complaints about the alert disturbing them, and were forced to issue a statement via Twitter. "Our communications bureau is receiving numerous calls to 9-1-1, complaining about the late hour of the Amber Alert. I can't even begin to describe how disappointing and upsetting it is to read the comments, emails and calls to our communications bureau complaining about receiving an Amber Alert late at night," wrote Const. Akhil Mooken on Twitter. Do you feel, given that this Amber Alert shows that the system can work (sadly in this case, not in time) the public's reaction is inappropriate?

The Amber Alert is officially a contrived acronym for America's Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response, but was named after Amber Hagerman, a 9-year-old abducted and murdered in Arlington, Texas in 1996. Amber Alerts have been enacted worldwide. According to the U.S. Department of Justice, of the children abducted and murdered by strangers, 75% are killed within the first three hours in the USA. Amber Alerts are designed to inform the general public quickly when a child has been kidnapped and is in danger so "the public [would be] additional eyes and ears of law enforcement". As of August 2013, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children estimates that 657 children have been successfully recovered as a result of the existence of the Amber Alert program. The system obviously works, but some still feel it obtrusive and sometimes unnecessary, Which side do you fall on?