Emergency services organizations call for Apple to implement life-saving location feature

anon(4697585)

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Agreed. No brainier. Police in the UK (and no doubt other countries) can ‘ping’ a phone in certain circumstances to find out the rough area but this is so much better and is user initiated so is safe.

I’m also hoping the UK will implement an early warning system like the US with amber alerts
 

anon(10000748)

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What am I going to do after I recover from the heart attack inducing awful noise at 3am jump up and search the streets? Confront a kidnapper? It’s the cops job not mine
 

Rob Phillips

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What am I going to do after I recover from the heart attack inducing awful noise at 3am jump up and search the streets? Confront a kidnapper? It’s the cops job not mine

You obviously don’t have children. If blasting out annoying alerts to thousands of people results in one child being returned to his or her parents it’s well worth it.
 

Sherry_B

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I'll never disable Amber Alerts, and I pray every single day that no parent has to go what I've been through. There is nothing in life that prepares you for the unexpected death of your child. It's a debilitating pain that never heals. It destroys you.
 

anon(4697585)

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According to the Office of Justice Programs, 868 children have been rescued specifically because of Amber Alerts.

https://www.amberalert.gov/statistics.htm

Great stats!! IMO if only one child is saved then it would be worth it.

Having seen videos of it though they’d would have to be careful about using it else people would turn it off which is understandable.

The UK is only half the size of California so our alerts would be better used for national emergencies or weather warnings then targeting local devices for kidnapping etc.

Back to the OPs point tho, I think manufacturers should take more responsibility in providing frameworks for emergency services. Amber alerts and GPS is just the start.
I’ve often thought it would be great to be able to FaceTime the police/fire/ambulance call takers and show them what’s happening.
This will allow them to task the most appropriate resources and assess for themselves what’s needed.
 

robertk328

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I'll never disable Amber Alerts, and I pray every single day that no parent has to go what I've been through. There is nothing in life that prepares you for the unexpected death of your child. It's a debilitating pain that never heals. It destroys you.

Absolutely. Even if it startles me for a moment, the pain the parents are going through is way worse. If seeing some information at an important time can lead to someone (whether it's me or not) saving a child, it's worth it.
 

Sherry_B

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I think some people are under the false impression that Amber Alerts are issued willy-nilly. They're not, and in fact are only issued in the most serious of child abduction cases. Law enforcement has to feel that a child is in immediate danger of serious bodily injury or death before they'll issue an alert. Amber Alerts should never be turned off or silenced.
 

Ledsteplin

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I do have a child, but I’ve never seen the town turn out for a vague description of a vehicle.

Just toggle it off!
Settings > Notifications > scroll down

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Wotchered

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As far as I know, we in the Uk do not have such things as Amber(or any other colour) alerts. I strongly suspect nobody would take a blind bit of notice of one if they saw it ! I for one would suspect the police or whoever of making a situation sound worse than it really is for their own convenience, and there's enough of that already.
 

anon(4697585)

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As far as I know, we in the Uk do not have such things as Amber(or any other colour) alerts. I strongly suspect nobody would take a blind bit of notice of one if they saw it ! I for one would suspect the police or whoever of making a situation sound worse than it really is for their own convenience, and there's enough of that already.

You are quite right, we don’t. Childline offer a Text one if you sign up.

I also agree that most would ignore it or turn it off but if one person in a group gets it they’ll no doubt mention it and with that the word will spread just as it does on Facebook or Twitter.

I think as long as there are strict guidelines for when they can or can’t use it then it would be effective.

You should also note that there are two systems which are widely used:

AMBER (which is an acronym as well as being named after a child): which is used for missing or abducted children.

Wireless Emergency Alert (wea) which is everything else from weather alerts to national security events.

In my opinion the UK would need a totally separate one which works with how we do things and as I said, would need to be strictly controlled or targeted.
 

robertk328

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I for one would suspect the police or whoever of making a situation sound worse than it really is for their own convenience, and there's enough of that already.
Amber alerts are not issued at random here in the US. They are for serious threats only so that they ARE taken seriously.
 

anon(5630457)

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I turned off Amber alerts after getting a few of them in a few days' time. I understand their importance, but I don't want to hear them and I'm not going to go searching for anyone.