Many Floridians took to Twitter this week complaining that they were frightened or otherwise annoyed on Monday afternoon when their cell phones delivered an AMBER Alert originating from Miami.
Jacksonville attorney Wyman Deuggan said he got an email about the alert, but he heard the unfamiliar tones coming from his co-worker's cell phones.
"I was walking down the hall going to a meeting and I kept hearing this tone," he said Tuesday, adding that it sounded like someone's printer had malfunctioned.
People were more upset when it was revealed Monday evening that the alert had been a false alarm — a little girl believed to have been kidnapped had accidentally snuck through the back seat to the trunk of a rental car driven by her father.
The incident, and use of the Wireless Emergency Alerts (WEA) in general, has left some wary of keeping the alerts active on their phones.
To Miami-Dade Police Detective Alvaro Zabaleta, the alerts are an important tool for law enforcement, and should not be ignored.
“Anybody that wants to deactivate it is crazy. The thought is crazy," he said.
"It’s a child that perhaps is in danger and needs help, and on top of that its somebody’s child, and God forbid it be yours, that you would want people to think, 'I’m going to deactivate it, you know why, ‘cause this is a nuisance.' No, it’s not a nuisance, it’s a kid.”
The WEA alerts are also activated to warn of extreme weather events and deliver Presidential Alerts during a national emergency, the latter of which cannot be deactivated.
According to the National Center For Missing and Exploited Children there have been 656 successful recoveries of children using the AMBER Alert system. The organization sent their first alert via the WEA in December.
