Although a five-year-old girl allegedly abducted by her father from a Markham school on Tuesday was found safe thanks to a sharp-eyed resident, many on social media are questioning why it took police so long to send an Amber Alert notification. “Where is the #AmberAlert?” Twitter user Sriyan Kannangara questioned less than half an hour after York Regional Police posted a child abduction tweet. “There should be an AMBER ALERT young girl possibly abducted by her father in Markham,” Coco Olive wrote on Twitter a few minutes later. “Why is there no Amber Alert? A child abducted should be an automatic Amber Alert,” Twitter user Lil De Filice wrote. READ MORE: Amber Alert cancelled after young girl allegedly abducted by father from Markham school found safe Story continues below advertisement York Regional Police were called to Armadale Public School on Coppard Avenue on Tuesday afternoon. Officers said the girl was taken from the school at around 2 p.m. by her 25-year-old father, who is not supposed to have access rights. Police said school staff weren’t aware that he wasn’t supposed to have access to his daughter. Officers were called at around 3 p.m. The pair left the school in a taxi and were dropped off at a plaza about three kilometres away. They later left in another vehicle. At 4:05 p.m., police put out a tweet on the service’s corporate account advising of a child abduction. Officers shared photos of the girl and her father along with a brief description. A minute later, police issued a news release with more detailed descriptions of the pair and more information about the incident. At 4:43 p.m., Global News received an email from the Ontario Association of Broadcasters saying an Ontario Amber Alert was “in effect.” Eighteen minutes later, the official Ontario Amber Alert Twitter account shared alert details. However, it wasn’t until 5:18 p.m. that the Amber Alert notification was received on cellphones. WATCH: Do Amber Alerts work? Sean O’Shea reports. 2:06 Do Amber Alerts work? Do Amber Alerts work? – Mar 20, 2019 Shortly before 6 p.m., the Amber Alert was cancelled after the girl was found safe. York Regional Police Const. Laura Nicolle said someone who saw the photos of the father and daughter released by police and shared by the media called officers to report seeing the pair. They were later tracked down at a Fairburn Drive industrial plaza about 10 kilometres away from the school. Story continues below advertisement “Obviously, this individual saw these people, called us right away, and we were able to get over there and get both of them in custody and make sure that little girl was OK,” she said. Early Wednesday morning, police told Global News the man was released from custody and no charges will be laid. What are the criteria for issuing Amber Alerts? Under the Ontario Provincial Police guidelines for activating Amber Alerts, a law enforcement agency needs to believe a child under 18 has been abducted and that the child is in danger. The agency must also have descriptive information about the child, the abductor or the vehicle — enough information to allow the investigating agency “to believe that an immediate broadcast alert will help in locating the child.” If the guidelines are met, the responding police service needs to submit an Amber Alert request form to the OPP. The OPP will then activate the alert on behalf of the requesting police service. Story continues below advertisement Emergency alerts are then sent out through the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination System (NAAD). The OPP said the NAAD shares the alerts through cable and satellite companies, over-the-air television stations, radio stations, social media and through cellphone text messages. READ MORE: Lethbridge Police Service explains criteria behind issuing Amber Alerts When asked about the delay in Amber Alerts on Wednesday, OPP Staff Sgt. Carolle Dionne told Global News there was a step missed in the cancellation process that allowed for people to continue receiving the alerts once it ended. “We pushed out the amber alert shortly after 5 p.m. and then were notified … around 6 p.m. that the child was located safely … and then the process moves forward to cancel the Amber Alert,” she said. “So that was put into the system and we were advised around 7 p.m. that the alert was still being broadcast through television and satellite services. So we did a check why was this still happening and realized that on our end, we missed a step in the process of the cancellation so that was rectified.” WATCH: OPP spokesperson sheds some light on way Amber Alerts are used 4:09 OPP spokesperson sheds some light on way Amber Alerts are used OPP spokesperson sheds some light on way Amber Alerts are used – Mar 20, 2019 Meanwhile, Nicolle said officers went through the appropriate process in requesting the Amber Alert from the OPP. Story continues below advertisement “An Amber Alert is one tool that’s used by police to find a child; it certainly is not the only tool. Immediately when we became aware of this, we started investigating and we started conducting all the investigative steps we normally do, including putting out those photos to the public and the media,” she said. “There’s a process for that, and it is not an immediate thing. We do contact the OPP and we lay out the specific criteria that we’re dealing with to see if it meets the threshold for an Amber Alert. At that point, if it does meet the threshold, the OPP will release that information and release that Amber Alert.” Where is the #AmberAlert ? — Sriyan Kannangara (@SriyanKannanga1) March 19, 2019 There should be an AMBER ALERT young girl possibly abducted by her father in Markham #abduction #amberalert #markham #yorkpolice — Coco Olive (@foodiebydesign) March 19, 2019 Why is there no amber alert? A child abducted should be an automatic amber alert! 😡 — Lil Di Felice (@LilDiFelice) March 19, 2019<doc-sep>Send this page to someone via email EDITOR’S NOTE: This article originally said the boy was abducted on Monday, which was incorrect. It has since been corrected to say he was abducted on Friday. We regret the error. The Edmonton Police Service cancelled an Amber Alert originally issued Friday night for an eight-year-old boy who they say was abducted by his mother from Waverley Elementary School on Friday afternoon. An off-duty Calgary Police Service member spotted the boy and his mother Brianne Hjalte, 31, while driving on Saturday morning. She was arrested by RCMP in Okotoks and is facing a charge of abduction. She remains in custody, and the child will be returned to his father. The alert was first issued Friday evening, and was updated early Saturday morning to state that the boy may have been in “imminent danger.” The alert was cancelled at approximately 6:30 a.m. MT (8:30 a.m. EST) on Saturday morning after the boy was found safe. Story continues below advertisement Police initially said the boy was abducted in the area of 68 Street and 89 Avenue at 2:50 p.m. In a news release, police said they believe the two left the area on foot, heading west on 89 Avenue. “It is believed that [the boy] is in imminent danger,” police said. Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "It is believed that [the boy] is in imminent danger," police said. Originally, police said they believed the two were travelling in a silver 2008 Jeep Patriot. However, shortly after 11:30 p.m., police said they believed the two were travelling in a 2002 Buick Century.<doc-sep>The Edmonton boy at the centre of an Amber Alert that spanned two Alberta cities has been found safe, and police are crediting an off-duty officer from Calgary with spotting the child and his mother. Edmonton police say in a news release that the Calgary officer saw the pair thanks to the Amber Alert, and that RCMP from Okotoks, south of Calgary, took the woman into custody. “It was without incident,” Edmonton police Staff Sergeant Ashley Emerson said of the arrest. Story continues below advertisement Police say the boy’s mother has been charged with one count of abduction, and the eight-year-old boy has been returned to his father. When they issued the alert Friday night, police said they believed the boy was abducted from school by his mother that afternoon, and that he was believed to be in danger. Emerson said police were alerted by a parent at around 3:50 p.m. local time that a boy was walked out of the building by a woman, without his coat or his outdoor footwear. The school had notified the parent, Staff Sgt. Emerson said, who then called police. After leaving Edmonton, the pair were believed to be travelling in the Calgary area. Staff Sgt. Emerson said investigators didn’t know at first who the woman was. They then learned there was a parenting order in place and suspected the woman might be the non-custodial parent. He explained it was several hours before an Amber Alert was issued because police needed to be satisfied that the child’s safety was at risk. “It was only at that point that we utilized that system. We don’t use it sort of as an investigative tool to help us resolve the matter quickly. We use it when we’re satisfied that it’s met the criteria and that the child is in fact in danger,” Staff Sgt. Emerson said. Story continues below advertisement Staff Sgt. Emerson said he didn’t know details of how the Calgary officer knew an alert had been issued for the boy. He said the officer spotted the vehicle that was described in the alert heading east out of the town of Black Diamond on Highway 7 and followed it. RCMP from Okotoks pulled the vehicle over on Highway 7 about halfway between Black Diamond and Okotoks, he said. Some people took to social media after the alert was issued, complaining that they were woken up by their cellphones which now carry the alerts. They were quickly denounced by others, including actor and comedian Andrew Phung, who was in his hometown of Calgary when he said he received the alert. “I was driving home from the theatre and took the scenic route to cover some extra streets. We are a community. We need to take care of one another,” Mr. Phung tweeted. In Ontario, where 11-year-old Riya Rajkumar was found dead in Brampton last month after an Amber Alert was issued, police also received complaints about late-night alerts or repeat broadcasts that were issued after the girl’s father was in custody. Story continues below advertisement Roopesh Rajkumar, who had been charged with first-degree murder, died after being hospitalized with a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Staff Sgt. Emerson said police don’t issue Amber Alerts lightly. “I think if people are bothered by receiving those notifications perhaps they want to have a conversation with their provider and find out a way that they can power off their phone at night so they don’t receive those notifications,” he said. “We’re certainly not going to avoid using the system because someone might be disturbed by the message.”<doc-sep>
Police have released a man taken into custody on Tuesday after an Amber Alert was issued for his five-year-old daughter, who officers alleged he abducted from her Markham school. “The child is safe, she’s OK … Now we’re going to try to figure out what happened and what was going on here,” Const. Laura Nicolle said Tuesday evening. “We don’t know if the father has committed an actual offence at this point. We have to investigate that further and figure out what his mindset was, what the intention was behind this and dig a little deeper into this.” Police said officers were called to Armadale Public School on Coppard Avenue Tuesday afternoon. The girl was taken from the school at around 2 p.m. by her father, who police said is not supposed to have access to his daughter. Police said school staff weren’t aware he didn’t have access rights. Story continues below advertisement Nicolle said they were last seen getting into a van taxi at the school, which dropped them off at a location on New Delhi Road a few kilometres away in Markham. She said they left the area in another vehicle. The young girl and her father were seen at a Fairburn Drive industrial plaza. Nicolle said someone who saw the photos released by police and shared by the media called officers. “Obviously this individual saw these people, called us right away and we were able to get over there and get both of them in custody and make sure that little girl was OK,” she said. Tweet This Click to share quote on Twitter: "Obviously this individual saw these people, called us right away and we were able to get over there and get both of them in custody and make sure that little girl was OK," she said. Early Wednesday morning, police told Global News the man was released from custody. The spokesperson said there is no word on any potential charges since the investigation is still ongoing. An update is scheduled to be released later on Wednesday. OPP issued an Amber Alert after being notified by York Regional Police. Many on social media questioned the delay in alerts being sent to cellphones. Nicolle said officers went through the appropriate process. “An Amber Alert is one tool that’s used by police to find a child, it certainly is not the only tool. Immediately when we became aware of this, we started investigating and we started conducting all the investigative steps we normally do, including putting out those photos to the public and the media,” she said. Story continues below advertisement “There’s a process for that and it is not an immediate thing. We do contact the OPP and we lay out the specific criteria that we’re dealing with to see if it meets the threshold for an Amber Alert. At that point, if it does meet the threshold, the OPP will release that information and release that Amber Alert.” WATCH: Police say 5-year-old girl taken from Markham school by father found safe. Catherine McDonald reports. 2:12 Police say 5-year-old girl taken from Markham school by father found safe Police say 5-year-old girl taken from Markham school by father found safe – Mar 19, 2019 An OPP spokesperson told Global News that the agency is aware of the alert delay, but officials haven’t been able to pinpoint a cause as of Tuesday evening. Meanwhile, Toronto police said the service’s 911 communication centre was receiving a significant amount of 911 calls from some people who were still receiving messages hours after the Amber Alert was cancelled. Story continues below advertisement “911 is in fact for emergencies and our phone lines should be kept open,” spokesperson Katrina Arrogante told Global News, adding that complaints should be directed to AlertReady.ca. “A number of people, even if it’s just one… they’re blocking that one phone call that could very well be an emergency. That disrupts an emergency that should be coming through, so it’s upsetting.” 9-1-1 is for Emergencies only. Please keep our phone lines open by not calling 9-1-1 due to the alerts you may still be receiving. Thank you! @TPSOperations ^ka https://t.co/OmIp0NDUQW — Katrina Arrogante (@TPSKatrina) March 20, 2019 This is the industrial plaza in #Markham where the father and his 5-year-old daughter were found safe just before six tonight after they were spotted by a keen-eyed citizen. Investigators now downloading surveillance video from the plaza pic.twitter.com/UTmfpValEp — Catherine McDonald (@cmcdonaldglobal) March 19, 2019