The only members of the public who might reasonably be expected to offer some help finding a license plate are driving, and aren't supposed to be messing around with phones.

This built-in contradiction has always bothered me.

These days there are ALPR cameras everywhere, and it's very hard to imagine John Q. Public is going to have a hot tip before our dystopian AI panopticon does. It has seemed obvious to me that, whatever their intention, the Amber alerts primarily function as copaganda: Persuading us that we live in a dangerous, unpredictable world, and that only the police can save us. By asking us for help locating license plates, while we're at home asleep at 3AM.

I live in New Hampshire and Maine was so terrible with their amber/safety alerts that I shut them off entirely on my phone. I remember getting woken up at 2 or 3am for an abducted child, they knew it was a parent. Later they sent out an ‘extreme’ (whatever the highest level is) threat to human life after a road rage incident where 1 guy shot another guy at an intersection. I was 150 miles away. That is a heck of a radius to set for one guy with a pistol. They ought to save extreme for when a meteor is headed for us or something.

My main issue with Amber Alerts is that they're not mutable. If my phone is screaming at me, I'm going to hit mute before reading what's on the phone. When I hit mute, the alert is gone. It's simply nowhere to be found. I can't read it in my notifications panel. It's gone.

It needs to show up as both an alert AND a notification. It's crazy that this isn't standard (in android, at least).

As per the article, in Canada, Amber Alerts are sent at the top level. Meaning even if your phone lets you set different sounds for different levels of government alert, Amber Alerts are sent at the "Your life is in imminent danger if you don't take immediate action" level every time.

I "hacked" my phone to disable the system, then downloaded an app that sends me equivalent notifications with the sound effects of my choosing.

Í live in Fort Worth, why the hell do I get amber alerts for Houston!? That's a 6 hour drive at least..

I haven't got an amber alert in a long time. Probably because the first woke everyone up at two AM. Next morning the child was found safe with the parent who had legal custody the whole time. Now they have so many checks in place that the alerts are almost never worth sending

Yes for other children, it didn’t for us (but wasn’t amber alert that failed though, it was failure of police investigation.)

Anywho if you get an Amber alert, see a child/person in severe distress. Reach out or at least take note of what’s going on. It’s important.

Y'all spend fucking hours gooning, doom scrolling and posting about what your damn cat did each day. What can't handle a 10-second interruption to your t-girl jerk hour?

Amber alerts aren't emergency warnings. If you chose to ignore a warning about a tornado or a possible flood, that's your problem. But out there is a kid that might need help, and all you're asked to do is to report if you see something suspicious that's matches the description.

If it means one less kid is going to end up on kiddie diddly island or found in a ditch, then send those alerts all day.

I thank you for your sacrifice and devastating hardship you have to face each time you get an amber alert like once or twice a year.

Luckily the alerts can be turned off in the US. I don't want to be woken up for something hundreds of miles away.

Now i see why the uk got one about not lighting barbeques, they were copying all of you.

I turned it off