Amber Alert Gets Public Involved in the Manhunt

A system to alert the public about abducted children was used statewide for the first time Thursday, generating emergency broadcasts and messages on 500 electronic freeway signs about the car being driven by the kidnapper of two Antelope Valley teenagers.

Within hours, the California Child Safety Amber Network was being praised for helping authorities rescue the two girls from Roy Ratliff, the suspected kidnapper who was shot dead by police.

“I’ve never seen this much information put out this quickly and broadly about a kidnapping case,” said Spike Helmick, commissioner of the California Highway Patrol. “That’s what Amber is all about.”

The system piggybacks on an existing emergency alert system for warning the public about storms, power outages and other disasters.

At about 7 a.m. Thursday, California Department of Transportation message boards on freeways across the state were displaying the license plate number of the suspect’s stolen Ford Bronco and a toll-free CHP number for the public to call with information.

The 500 digital signs, which at first said “Amber Alert,” confused some drivers unfamiliar with the program, according to dispatchers at the CHP’s Sacramento headquarters. The phrase was replaced with “Child Abducted” later in the morning.

At 9:30 a.m., a person who had heard an emergency broadcast stopped a deputy to report seeing the Bronco on California 178 west of Lake Isabella, Kern County sheriff’s officials said. Two hours later, a Caltrans employee also reported seeing the vehicle.

Kern County Sheriff’s deputies caught Ratliff driving on a dirt road in the area shortly before 1 p.m.

Others, however, criticized the five hours it took authorities to activate the so-called Amber system after officers confirmed the girls’ kidnapping earlier in the morning.

“The emergency alert system did not activate in a timely manner,” said state Assemblyman George Runner (R-Lancaster). “Five hours is a failure of the system.”

At a news conference Thursday, Gov. Gray Davis said he didn’t know why it took so long.

“We’ll review this system,” said Davis, who introduced the voluntary law enforcement program last week. “We want it to be as good as it possibly can be, and if there are any defects, we’ll fix them.”

News outlets had begun broadcasting reports about the missing girls--who had been kidnapped at gunpoint--at least two hours before they were notified through the emergency alert system.

According to Runner and law enforcement agencies, deputies from the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the kidnapping scene about 2 a.m. and began notifying other police departments and the media within 15 minutes.

About 3:45 a.m., sheriff’s deputies issued the first bulletin reporting the crime on the state’s emergency digital information service Web site, which also alerted law enforcement agencies and other subscribers through e-mails and pager messages.

Deputies did not issue an Amber alert until 6:58 a.m.

“We did run into some glitches--it’s just a matter of getting things fine-tuned,” said Sgt. Alfred Ortega of the sheriff’s communications center. “This has been a learning experience.”

The department’s goal is to issue an Amber alert within 30 minutes of confirming the crime, Ortega said.

Victim advocates said the Amber system--named after a Texas child who was abducted and killed in 1996--can be one of the best ways to protect kidnapping victims from harm because it blankets public airwaves with news of the crime.

The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, a nonprofit advocacy group based in Alexandria, Va., estimates that 20 children in the country have been saved because of the network.

“When the Amber alert works like it’s supposed to, it should take minutes before the word gets out to the media,” said Jenni Thompson, spokeswoman for the Polly Klaas Foundation, a Petaluma, Calif., group that works to prevent crimes against children.

Statistics show that many victims are killed within hours of their abductions, advocates said. Suspects have been known to release children after hearing an Amber alert on the radio, Thompson said. She said California’s Amber system showed its strength Thursday, even though it remains voluntary. “We don’t have any protocol,” Thompson said. “We don’t have any policies or procedures. Having none of that in place, it worked well.”

The governor has said he hopes to sign a bill by the end of summer that would require law enforcement agencies to use the Amber system, which is used in at least a dozen other states.

The Amber system is similar to CARE, which has been used in Orange County since 1999.

Modeled after the Amber system, CARE includes both the emergency alert system and the emergency digital information system, but does not use electronic freeway signs.

The CARE system was first used in March 2000 when an 11-year-old girl was abducted and taken to Mexico, said Jim Amormino, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff’s Department.

A tipster spotted the car near the Mexico border and called police. Within three days, the girl was found safe and returned to her mother. Police arrested a suspect in the kidnapping.

The system was used again last month when Samantha Runnion, 5, was snatched from near her Stanton home. Tips from the public led to the arrest of a 27-year-old Lake Elsinore man suspected in her kidnapping and killing.

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Times staff writer Mai Tran contributed to this report.