Amber Alert vs. Run away

I saw that after the recent Cuyahoga Falls child had run away, many people were questioning why an Amber Alert was not sent out, and the fact that one was not sent out had angered a few people. I wanted to take a moment to break down the criteria that must be followed for an Amber Alert to be paged.

According to the Amber Alert website (http://www.amberalert.gov) there are five criteria for an amber alert to be paged.One being there is reasonable belief by law enforcement that the child was abducted, or that an abduction has occurred. The second criteria is that the child must be in danger of serious bodily injury or death.The third is they require a significant amount of information about the child and the person accused of abducting the child.The fourth is, the child must be 17 years or younger.The final being “The child’s name and other critical data elements, including the Child Abduction flag, have been entered into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system.”

Back to the situation that happened earlier in the week, there was no standing evidence that the child had been abducted and it was believed that the child had ran away. Therefore an Amber Alert was not made because the criteria had not been met.