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O'PAKE BILL WOULD INCREASE PENALTY FOR FALSE
AMBER ALERT
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O'Pake |
HARRISBURG, June 24
–
In the wake of a recent faked kidnapping in
southeastern Pennsylvania, Senator Michael
A. O’Pake has introduced legislation to
increase the penalty for causing false Amber
Alerts.
“Public confidence in Amber
Alerts is critical to their continuing
success,” the Reading Democrat, author of
the state Amber Alert System law, said.
“This is no game. When a child’s life is
believed to be at risk, police will put
everything on the line to bring the child
home safely.”
O’Pake noted that was proven by
the recent slaying of State Trooper Joshua
Miller in Monroe County during an attempt to
halt an abduction by a parent.
O’Pake said the need to increase
the penalty was brought to his attention by
law enforcement officials after 38-year-old
Bonnie Sweeten reported in late May that she
and her nine-year-old daughter had been
kidnapped and locked in the trunk of a car
following a minor accident.
Police the next day determined,
following an intensive search involving
local, state and federal authorities in
Pennsylvania and Florida, that her calls
were a ploy to conceal a flight to
Disneyworld to avoid an unrelated
investigation.
O’Pake’s bill would make falsely
causing an Amber Alert punishable by up to
seven years in jail and a fine of up to
$15,000, the same penalty now provided for
causing a false alarm during a state of
emergency.
“When police request the
public’s help to save a child’s life, there
should be no pause to wonder whether that
help is really needed. It is.
“There is too much on the line
to tolerate anyone creating a room for
doubt.”
O’Pake was instrumental in the
launching of the state Amber Alert system in
2003, following an incident in his Berks
County district, in which an armed school
bus driver kidnapped a busload of middle
school students and drove them to the
Maryland suburbs of Washington where they
were recovered safely.
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