AN URGENT alert system to help find missing or abducted children is to be set up, following a recommendation by the Garda Síochána Inspectorate.
It would be modelled on the Amber Alert system used in the US for more than a decade. This involves police sending an urgent bulletin to the public through the media and other agencies, seeking help in searching for a child.
The inspectorate’s chief inspector Kathleen O’Toole said she was conscious of pressures on the public purse, but the Amber Alert system would not incur major costs.
“When a child goes missing in high-risk circumstances, it is vital that arrangements are in place whereby the Garda Síochána can immediately harness the assistance and support of key Government and non-Government networks in alerting the community,” Ms O’Toole said.
The recommendation is contained in the Missing Persons Review and Recommendations report published by her inspectorate yesterday.
The Minister for Justice had asked the inspectorate to review procedures on missing persons and advise on the need to establish an Amber Alert system.
Dermot Ahern said everything must be done to help locate a missing child. “This will be a challenging task and it will require the support of a whole range of governmental agencies, NGOs, the media, as well as the support of the public.”
Versions of the alert system exist in countries such as Britain and France and the European Union is considering the introduction of an EU-wide system.
Strict rules govern the Amber Alert system. Police must believe the child has been abducted and the child must be in imminent danger of serious injury or death before the alert can be issued.
The report points out the Garda say they believed no case in Ireland in the past decade would have warranted the initiation of the alert, but says this should not rule out such an alert system.
“The potential to rescue a child from a life-threatening abduction is deserving of priority in all circumstances,” it states. “For this reason, the inspectorate recommends that the Garda Síochána develop an alert system grounded in best practices recognised around the world.”
The alert system should be an all-island system, the report advises, as abductors pay no need to borders. The recommendation is one of 18 contained in the inspectorate’s report.
Garda Commissioner Fachtna Murphy said he fully embraced the report findings and noted the recommendations. “These matters will be advanced as a matter of urgency as part of the implementation of the report,” he said.
Another recommendation advises a protocol addressing the issue of children in care who go missing should be expedited.
Mr Murphy said protocols were agreed with the Health Service Executive (HSE) and would be signed off in the coming weeks.
“Additionally, in each Garda district in which a HSE children’s care home is situated, a designated sergeant will be appointed who will liaise with the care home and co-ordinate inquiries with the Garda Missing Persons Bureau,” he said.
Fine Gael’s Denis Naughten welcomed the report, saying 22 migrant children had gone missing from HSE accommodation in the last 12 months but were not listed on the Garda’s missing children website.
The report recommends that the Garda missing persons webpages be improved and made more accessible. A recommendation that extra resources be given to the three-person Garda Missing Persons Bureau had also been implemented, the Garda Commissioner said.
The Irish Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children welcomed the report and called for closer working relationships between services involved with missing children across Europe.
Early warning system: saving abducted children
The Amber Alert system began in the US in 1996 when Dallas-Fort Worth broadcasters and local police joined forces to develop an early warning system to help find abducted children.
Amber stands for America’s Missing: Broadcast Emergency Response but is also in memory of Amber Hagerman (9), who was riding her bike in her Texas neighbourhood when she was kidnapped and murdered.
Under US department of justice criteria, the case must meet certain criteria. Law enforcement officers must confirm the abduction; the child must be at risk of serious injury or death; there must be sufficient descriptive information of child, captor or captor’s vehicle; and the child must be 17 years or younger.
According to the US department of justice, Amber Alert has helped to save the lives of 443 children in the US, with more than 90 per cent of rescues occurring since 2002 when the programme became a national one.
The first Amber Alert to lead to a prosecution was in Texas in 1998 after two-month-old Rae- Leigh Bradbury was returned to her parents following an Amber Alert broadcast on local radio.
She had been abducted by a drug addict. Police recovered her less than half an hour after a listener to the KRLD station heard the broadcast and spotted the kidnapper driving in front of him.
In Iowa in 2006, Amber Alert led to the recovery of two girls after they had apparently run away from home with a man who was wanted by police.
In 2002, one-month-old Nancy Crystal Chavez was rescued after she was kidnapped from her mother’s car in a car park in Abilene, Texas.
