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We at Jessica’s Law Now are saddened at the sudden and tragic death of Max Hernandez 7-year-old autistic boy and the choices his father Conrad made, when he had so much to live for and he chose not only to probably end his life, but the life of his child. 

However, what compounds this story is that if a simple Amber Alert was issued, at the time of the disappearance, it may have stopped these events from unfolding in the manner in which they had.  The Amber Alert is a tool, which needs to be fully utilized in a more effective manner by law enforcement. We prefer law enforcement to err on the side of caution than to stand by, and not enact in a timely manner.

However, there is something disturbing the public and national communities do not know that the Amber Alert is missing:

1)      Voluntary: Once law enforcement determines that, a child been abducted by the criteria not only law enforcement has, but also that it meets the Amber Alert criteria, then an alert is issued. We feel that time is of the essence, send out the alert and then if it is falsely done, hold the person responsible for the false report.

2)      Parental Abductions, fall under a certain criteria and not considered as pressing, since the child is with a parental unit and secondly it falls under the court’s jurisdiction. However, there have been several cases where intervention was needed through an Amber Alert, because an unstable, parent bent on harming the child and the time it took to untangle the red tape, ultimately cost the child, either by being lost, or being killed, by the parent abducted the child.

3)      CARD (Child Abduction Rapid Deployment) and CART (Child Abduction Response Teams) work under the Amber Alert criteria(s) with law enforcement, the FBI, and other organizations. However, the criteria fall short when it comes to parental abduction.

How Amber Alerts work…Once law enforcement determines that a child has been abducted and the abduction meets AMBER Alert criteria, law enforcement issues an AMBER Alert and notifies broadcasters and state transportation officials.

Each state AMBER Alert plan has its own criteria for issuing AMBER Alerts. The PROTECT Act, passed in 2003, which established the role of AMBER Alert Coordinator within the Department of Justice (DOJ), calls for DOJ to issue minimum standards or guidelines for AMBER Alerts that states can adopt voluntarily. DOJ's guidance on criteria for issuing AMBER Alerts is:

• 1.) Law enforcement must confirm that an abduction has taken place.

2.) The child is at risk of serious injury or death.
• 3.) There is sufficient descriptive information of child, captor, or captor's vehicle to issue an alert.
• 4.) The child must be 17 years old or younger.
It is recommended that immediate entry of AMBER Alert data be entered in FBI's National Crime Information Center. Text information describing the circumstances surrounding the abduction of the child should be entered, and the case flagged as Child Abduction.

Too many children that are dead or missing today fit the criteria and authorities refused to issue Amber Alert, when they should have. Most state's guidelines adhere closely to DOJ's recommended guidelines. However, there are conflicts in criteria regarding parental abduction, and missing children.

We know that AMBER Alerts need be issued across state and jurisdictional lines.

Yes, many states have formal memorandums of understanding with other states and there are currently 28 regional plans. If law enforcement has reason to believe that the child been taken across state lines, the AMBER state coordinator will ask that state to issue an alert. Many states have informal agreements with other states to issue AMBER Alerts upon request.

Unfortunately, we have seen break downs in which Amber Alerts aren’t issued in a timely, effective manner, because they are trying to determine what  criteria the child and abductor fall under.  When it comes to a child’s welfare and safety, there should not be any criteria to wait for, except that the child needs protection. Approximately 70 percent of law enforcement agencies do not have written guidelines on how to respond to family abduction.

We propose that national guidelines need to be adopted, to make amber alerts mandatory rather than voluntary. Where there is a comprehensive, clear, concise criteria to enact upon when there is a missing child, a parentally abducted child, etc.

 We need to streamline the processes especially when lives are at stake. Once the child is safely in custody then law enforcement and courts can untangle, what is what.

The UNIFORM CHILD ABDUCTION PREVENTION ACT has criteria that can be utilized in conjunction with the Amber Alert.

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