

Amber Alert system offline due to funding - philip1209
http://www.amberalert.gov/

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kenrikm
I've seen this before and it's in my opinion an example of how divisive/slimy
politics can get. When city/state/federal governments have budget issues they
shut off the "consumer" facing services to get the outrage required to move
public opinion. Who would care (other then the government employees) if some
obscure government agency was shuttered? This is a message. I'm curious how
much the amber alert program really costs (I assume not much, a few million?)
compare that to a laundry list of what's still operational and you'll see my
point.

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mistercow
My impression was that AMBER alerts were essentially pretty much as useful as
the TSA. Good for giving the public an impression of utility, but not actually
effective for their purported purpose.

The reasoning is that in almost any case where a child is in significant
danger of violence, there is essentially zero chance of law enforcement being
able to act quickly enough to prevent that violence. So issuing an alert might
help you recover a child more quickly who would have been recovered anyway,
and does nothing to prevent children from actually coming to harm.

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jacob_smith
Okay, now I'm somewhat political, but have largely just steered clear of this
whole shutdown business (as far as engaging in discussions), but this just
seems ridiculous. How much can it possibly take to run the Amber Alert system?
A dedicated server, maybe? They send out a few emails, a few texts, maybe
integrate with those signs on the side of the road--I just can't see it
costing that much, and should have already been pre-paid for! I don't
understand the government shutting down systems which have already been paid
for with tax-payer money. </rant>

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andrewfong
Has anyone ever done an analysis of how effective these systems are? I see the
alerts all the time, but I'm curious how many times a rescue has been
attributed to them.

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plorkyeran
Not very, but there's a few cases where it's worked.
[http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/20/...](http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/ideas/articles/2008/07/20/abducted/)
is the classic article on it that always seems to get linked.

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noonespecial
Is it really "offline", or just the website landing page? I got an "Amber
Alert" out of Miami on my mobile phone yesterday. It happened while I was
driving and freaked me right out. My phone was paired with my car and it
managed to make the loudest most sudden noise I've ever heard in my car. It
sounded like someone water-boarding a bald eagle.

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Daniel_Newby
Why is this political campaign being reported on HN? (The labor cost to turn
it off vastly exceeds its marginal cost of operation. Ergo it was turned off
by a subversive political operative.)

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homehome
Criminals should be thumb-upping this

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alien3d
oops.. next white house movie alike.

