PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — There have been questions about why it took authorities more than eight hours to issue an Amber Alert after the abduction of a 6-year-old, taken in a stolen car in Germantown.
Deputy Commissioner Ben Naish says there was "confusion about some of the circumstances."
"As the vehicle was located on the street, it is looking like, at this point, that it may have been there in a place that was not easily viewable to the public eye. We don't think the Amber would have necessarily made a significant difference, but we were out there looking for that car, fortunately it was found," Naish said.
Amber Alerts originated in 1996 as a way to help coordinate law enforcement agencies and galvanize the public in the cases of missing children who are believed to be in imminent danger.
With or without the Amber Alert, Naish says, officers were in continuous communication over police radio.
The original report of the missing child was made around 9 p.m. Tuesday. The Amber Alert went out around 5 a.m. Wednesday, and the car and the child were found about three hours later.
The child was found unharmed in North Philadelphia, near the 35th district police headquarters, and is expected to be OK, police say. The investigation into what happened continues.
