Amber Alert
— James Spann (@spann) February 8, 2024
The State of Alabama has issued a Child Abduction Emergency, Amber Alert. The Decatur Police Department and the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency ask for your assistance in locating Prince Burge, black male, 1 year of age. Prince Burge was seen on February 8, 2024, at… pic.twitter.com/NdGdgBkeXG
Normally I would post the full text like in the past. But such is not currently available through the National Weather Service website or through the Alabama Law Enforcement Agency website. I even went to the official website for Amber Alerts and did not find it. Weird. But I did find where somebody from FOX-6 and also James Spann reposted it on Twitter/X. So that's what I'm passing along, James's tweet. I hope they find this kid safely, and I also hope that the system works better in the future, as it has in the past, as far as getting the details out and online. On my cell phone, as soon as I click "OK", the alert goes away. There is probably a way to go back and look at it, but if I have to stop and figure that out, then I can only imagine that most people will miss these details if they are not made more easily available. It used to be through the National Weather Service, just go to their website, and they passed these along. You could see all the details there. It was a really handy reference. Those phone alerts are not easy to bookmark, so to speak. Anyway above is what Spann tweeted about it. Hopefully they find this little dude and everybody's ok.
All right, the details are starting to show up after a few minutes. Time can be of the essence with such things. Below I'll paste the info from the ALEA.
Here is a link to their info and also a link to it from the Amber Alert homepage.
Also got a tweet back from the National Weather Service in Huntsville. Apparently the NWS has quit passing such things along. I don't know when that changed or why it did. They still put out civil emergency messages about other things, like if roads are impassable. Seems like a step backward to cut back on this aspect of public safety. But let's be honest, the world is regressing in many ways . . .
11:09 AM - And looking at the post, it is a big mess. There needs to be some way to pass on this info that is more orderly, like the text used to be in one spot and very clearly written. And then you could pass along any photos separately. I don't know how to straighten it out, because somebody changed the way they did this without my noticing. I think the change was for the worse. But if you see these people, please call 911 or the Decatur police and report every detail you can remember. And be discreet if possible. Don't let the abductor know you're onto the situation, just get the cops on it right away.
12:01 PM - The Amber Alert has been cancelled. No further details are available at this time.
And about as soon as I got that typed, actually, yes there are details. The kid was found safe, and the abductor has been arrested.
For all my gripes above about the communication system appearing less orderly than in years past, a major thanks to everyone who worked to get the word out and who contributed to this outcome. Bottom line, the system did work, and the person who was in danger is now safe. That's what's important.
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