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American Morning

Amber Alert Fatigue

Aired August 15, 2002 - 09:24   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

ARTHEL NEVILLE, CNN ANCHOR: We have been telling you about the Amber Alert System, how it helped the Chavez family in Texas, getting it's baby daughter back. Well, two little girls in California were found safe last night, just 15 minutes after an Amber Alert was put out on them. The system seems to be working very well, but can there be too much of a good thing?
Ethan Harp of affiliate station KCRA, Sacramento reports on what California is doing to avoid Amber Alert fatigue.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ETHAN HARP, KCRA REPORTER: If you want an example of what people fear could happen with amber alerts, listen to what some fliers have to say about all those terror warnings.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: To a point, we I think some of us become immune to it, maybe.

HARP: You think you did?

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: A little bit, maybe more than I should.

HARP: Now listen to st women some people are already saying about Amber Alerts.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just don't pay much attention to it them any more, not like it was before.

HARP: Why not?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It's -- I can't explain. It's more like a comfort zone thing.

HARP: To try keep Californians from being burned out and tuning out of news bulletins, assemblyman George Runner is sponsoring a bill that would require law enforcement to meet specific criteria before activating Amber.

GEORGE RUNNER (R), CALIF. ASSEMBLY: We had a situation, for instance, in San Francisco, where we had a young lady from China, who just disappeared, and all of a sudden we doing Amber Alerts.

MARC KLAAS, CHILD SAFETY ADVOCATE: Seems like if a child is coming home late for dinner, somebody is going to activate an Amber Alert.

HARP: Missing children advocate Marc Klaas fears too many alerts could make the system meaningless.

KLAAS: People have to understand this for most extreme cases, where young children are kidnapped, and their lives are in danger.

HARP: While the state tries to work out the bugs, some insist they will still pay close attention every single time.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I would rather have something like that where children are involved overkill. I really would.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

NEVILLE; And that was Ethan Harp of affiliate station KCRA in Sacramento, California reporting.

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