“Third Party Update” Cause of Issue During Recent Amber Alert Involving Abducted Infant

Pete Fisher
1 year ago
• Categories: Police Blotter, Provincial

The Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) has said a “third party update” was the issue which impacted the release of an AMBER Alert Wednesday night.

During the attempt to issue an AMBER Alert that involved an abducted infant in the Roseneath area, the OPP experienced a “technical issue.”

Bill Dickson, Acting Media Relations Manager for the OPP said in the release, “As a result, the OPP contacted the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre (PEOC), its counterpart at Emergency Management Ontario, which was able to issue the alert on the OPP’s behalf to LTE-connected wireless devices (which means any wireless device connected to the 4G or other WIFI network. e.g. phones tablets etc.) in the area where the child was last seen.

This approach was supported by investigators, who had reason to believe the suspect had not travelled far, said the Dickson in a release.

The unfortunate part is the target area for the OPP was the Peterborough area, but many people in the area where the child was missing (Northumberland County)  didn’t receive any type of Amber Alert.

“This issue was the result of an automated third-party software update,” said Dickson.

“The issue has been resolved, and the OPP’s AMBER Alert system is once again fully functional.”

The OPP is taking multiple steps to ensure this does not happen in the future:

OPP technical teams have been working to create a backup to circumvent automated updates that are outside the OPP’s control.

The OPP is creating a manual process to enable access to the National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination (NAAD) system (also known as Alert Ready) without third-party software.

The OPP will continue to test the system on a regular basis.

“The OPP thanks the public for their engagement and patience. The AMBER Alert system has proven to be highly effective in disseminating critical information to the public during child abductions.”

The OPP’s system is fully functional at this point.