LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — On Thursday morning, the community got an Amber Alert on their phones and maybe other devices, after North Las Vegas Police started investigating a father abducting his 10-month-old daughter.
They told Channel 13 they believed the young girl's life was in danger, and that triggered an Amber Alert.
Crime
UPDATE: Infant found safe, father in custody after morning AMBER Alert
Hours after they went missing, police confirmed they were both safe and not hurt, and that the infant's father was in custody.
It was an outcome police hoped for, but it also led the Channel 13 team to ask about the process that leads to an Amber Alert.
WATCH | Learn about the process that leads up to Amber Alerts
That brought us to retired Metro Police Assistant Sheriff Tom Roberts.
"When you’re a first-responder and you’re dispatched to something like that, there’s a sense of urgency and an emergency that, hey, the welfare of this child is in danger," he said.
He added that Amber Alerts are not used often, and for good reason. "There’s some checks and balances to make sure that we’re not just sending stuff out all the time," Roberts explained.
That way, the public doesn't get used to the sound and the notification on their devices and is alarmed when they do show up.
Roberts explained how an event where a child is missing rises to the level of needed an Amber Alert.
"The Nevada Department of Public Safety owns all the hardware and software that pushes out the alerts, and I think that’s by design. So, you have one entity that’s responsible for that, and then everybody else feeds into it."
The Nevada DPS explains on their website that Amber Alerts are not issued for runaways or parental abductions. The only exception to that, which applies to Thursday's North Las Vegas case, is when police believe the victim's life is in imminent danger.
On Thursday morning, Channel 13 and other news outlets got preliminary information and a description of the car that belonged to the victim's dad before the alert went out.
Roberts said the information made it's way out, and the alert was likely in motion to get out to the community.
He also said police want to hear from anyone who may think their child is missing. It doesn't mean that'll trigger an Amber Alert, but he said they can still try to help.
