Police now have a new tool to use in the case of an AMBER alert in Canada.
Recently Facebook Canada announced a partnership with police to leverage the social media website’s reach and scale to provide accurate information swiftly in the case of an AMBER alert.
Paul Greene is the Director of Strategic Communications for the RCMP, and says if you see an alert, it means you can be of specific help.
“What Facebook will do is if you have a mobile device, when you open up your Facebook app, it is the first thing that will come up in a certain geographic area,” says Greene.
He adds this is an additional tool for authorities to disseminate accurate information in a timely manner.
“We recognize there are a lot of people on Facebook and that information can be shared rather quickly,” says Greene. “So if you see that information coming up on your Facebook Feed know that it did come from the police.”
Greene adds time is of the essence in the case of an AMBER alert, and the more eyes and ears are on the lookout, the better the odds of a safe and quick recovery.
He adds there are very specific criteria necessary to trigger the issuing of an AMBER alert.
“The victim has to be a child, there’s reason to believe they’re in danger of serious bodily injury and there’s information available that we believe as the police if it’s disseminated to the general public they could assist us in recovering the child,” says Greene.
Greene says there haven’t been any AMBER alerts in New Brunswick since the system was adopted in 2003 but if they do have to use it, this tool will be of great assistance.
