Amber Alert issued in California still not active in BC
Posted August 8, 2013 11:28 am.
This article is more than 5 years old.
SAN DIEGO (NEWS1130) – An Amber Alert that was issued in San Diego and has been expanded to Oregon and Washington is still not active in BC.
Police are searching for a 16-year-old girl and her eight-year-old brother out California
Earlier this week, police in the US said the suspect is believed to be heading to Texas or Canada. But Mounties say since they don’t think he’s actually crossed the border, they haven’t activated the alert in this province.
But Sergeant Rob Vermeulen with E-Division tells us they are in constant talks with officers in the US monitoring the situation closely.
“Certainly, we are aware of the Amber Alert,” he says. “We have been in touch with the San Diego County Sheriffs Department we are communicating directly with them. It is a constant assessment.”
“Decisions about whether to active an alert in BC are made based on the best investigational evidence available, and when our criteria are met. There is a number of criteria but currently, there is no confirmed information that they’ve crossed the international border.”
He notes in they do get confirmation that they crossed into BC, “we would have to believe that the alert can be issued in a time frame that would provide a reasonable expectation that the child would be returned and or the abductor would be apprehended.”
Hannah Anderson, 16, and Ethan Anderson, 8, are still missing.
Police searching for 40-year-old James Lee Dimaggio, who is also suspected of killing the children’s mother. He’s believed to be driving a blue Nissan Versa.
Faith St John with the CBSA says all BC Border Guards have also been updated in the form of a “look-out.”
“A ‘look-out’ in our system is the way that we get the information out to our border services officers in the booth so that they have immediate access to this information.”
Many people in San Diego were upset to be receiving Amber Alert text messages on their phones; Vermeulen says in BC, you must opt-in to receive an alert on your device.
