Does New York’s AMBER Alert system need an update? [Video]

As of the end of last year, 1,200 children have been successfully recovered through AMBER Alerts nationwide. But high-profile AMBER Alert cases in the Capital Region in the last year have sparked questions about how the system works, the length of time it can take to activate an AMBER Alert and if changes are necessary.

This past spring, an AMBER Alert was activated after the disappearance of a 10-month-old girl in Schenectady. It was later canceled, and law enforcement allege the baby died as a result of her mother’s actions.

About five months prior, an AMBER Alert was activated after a 9-year-old girl was abducted from a state park in Saratoga County.

In both cases, that emergency alert was issued more than 12 hours after the child’s initial disappearance.

Spectrum News 1 set out to better understand how AMBER Alerts work in New York, and proposed changes advanced by lawmakers, by looking deeper …