SARASOTA, Fla. (AP) – By the time an Amber Alert was issued for 11-year-old Carlie Brucia, a full day had passed since the moment she was led away by a dark-haired stranger in an abduction that was videotaped by a security camera.
The alert on Feb. 2 caught the public’s attention and is being credited with helping lead detectives to a suspect, Joseph P. Smith. But Carlie’s body was found several days later, and now the alert system is under scrutiny for the ways it is used and the timing of its implementation.
The new attention to the 7-year-old system comes at a time when a national Amber Alert system is in the works and more police agencies are turning to alerts to find missing children.
While it is credited with helping rescue more than 120 children from kidnappers since 1996 – including Wednesday’s kidnapping of month-old Jesse Peaster, who was found safe just hours he was taken from his home near Lincoln, Mo. – records show the use of the alert system has been haphazard.
Some police departments have been quick to issue alerts when a child isn’t in danger, while other agencies such as Sarasota have been more conservative in their approach and not issued alerts quickly, even when a child’s life was at stake.
The Justice Department says time is of the essence in abductions, citing statistics that show three-quarters of the children killed by their kidnappers are slain within the first three hours of their disappearance.