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I know this one. They have electronic signs set up by major highways that flash the message "Missing Adult" followed by a description of their car. I forget i
by vba616 3y ago
I know this one.
They have electronic signs set up by major highways that flash the message "Missing Adult" followed by a description of their car.
I forget if there's an alert "color" for it.
What I think would make a more interesting article is - a nursing home full of elderly people with dementia might have one much younger person, and a hospital psych ward might have one elderly person with dementia among younger people.
What are their stories?
- akiselev 3y agoAptly named the "silver" alert: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Alert https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Silver_Alert
- harles 3y agoIt’s unfortunate that, at least in California, silver alerts are bundled with amber alerts. The volume of silver alerts was so high (several a week) that I turned them off which also turned off amber alerts. I have to wonder what the cost/benefit tradeoff is when blasting out an alert to a couple million people. Some of those folks will be driving or in others situations where a full volume unmutable alert is a safety risk.
- klabb3 3y agoIirc amber alerts aren’t great either, and have big unintended consequences, possibly to the point where it does more harm than good. I remember reading a long article about it, but can’t seem find it right now unfortunately.
- bee_rider 3y agoAmber alerts are to help prevent child abductions, right? The “more harm” from the unintended consequences would have it be pretty bad to compete with that.
- hackernewds 3y agoSave 1 child, crash 10 old people is a classic trail/railroad ethical dilemma. Arguably it's not settled conclusion
- bee_rider 3y agoI haven’t gotten one in ages (I’m beginning to wonder if maybe they are much less popular in the Northeast for some reason). So I forget, do they respect phone settings like “driving mode, do not disturb?”
- Broken_Hippo 3y agoNo, they don't prevent anything. In theory, they are to help find a child that has already been abducted and they think is in immediate danger. Being abducted, by itself, isn't enough to get an alert. And IIRC, they don't do that very well. It isn't a system that is standardized across the US and some places cut down on the number of alerts because it causes distracted drivers (which cause accidents and whatnot) and the public has started to tune them out. On top of this, brains are flawed, and aren't always good at "look for this stranger for 5 minutes while driving and hearing your child cry".
- jstarfish 3y ago> In theory, they are to help find a child that has already been abducted and they think is in immediate danger. Being abducted, by itself, isn't enough to get an alert. The bar for Amber Alerts has been pretty low since its inception. I stopped paying attention myself once it became apparent they were being used to deputize the public as repo men for custodial abductions. Parents who murder their children usually don't kidnap them first-- unless the responders force escalation and standoff (see also: the police-chase debate). Settle that shit in court and stop being dramatic. It's only as of earlier this year that [in California at least] the criteria are being revisited to eliminate custody disputes as a qualifier. Though CA/AZ/NM/TX have added risk of such abductions becoming international affairs, which is the only concession I'd make for such histrionics. The system does work though, as does the FBI most-wanted list.