The majority of amber alerts are from parents in custody disputes. Mom says dad stole the kids or visa versa. They really should not be putting these cases into the same category as abductions.
There should be a fine for this. I understand that there are situations where a parent does take their kids where it would actually fall under abduction/kidnapping. However, if parents are abusing the alert system for minor custody disputes, then this should be handled with a severe punishment. Almost to the point of losing the custody battle if they're that immature.
The alerts are sent by police, not parents. I was curious and at one point went thru a year's records for NY state amber alerts. There were zero instances of stranger abduction. Most cases are as you say children taken by parent without custodial rights, with a secondary set of teens running away, sometimes with an older romantic partner.
Yeah if you give a button to an employee and tell them “you won’t ever be yelled at for pushing the button, but if you fail to push the button and something happens you will be yelled at” - that button is going to get pushed. A lot.
