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HomeNewsAmber alert prompts deluge of complaints to OPP emergency lines

Amber alert prompts deluge of complaints to OPP emergency lines

Again Wednesday night, provincial police emergency phone lines were flooded with complaints regarding an Amber alert about two young boys from Newmarket who were missing.

Staff Sergeant Stacy Whaley manages community safety services for the OPP.  He says police get compliments and thanks for issuing the alerts, but not nearly as many as the complaints.

“Not only is it selfish,” he states, “but it also compromises the safety of others when you’re tying up emergency lines.”

Whaley says most complaints are from cell phone users, since the program expanded to them last year from just radio and TV messages.

“Put yourself in the shoes of a parent who is going through that grief, ‘Where’s my child? Is something bad happening to my child?’ We just want everybody to put themselves in those positions.”

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