TORONTO — The premier of Ontario said she wasn't upset when an Amber Alert popped up on her TV screen as she was watching "Downton Abbey" on Sunday night, but that wasn't the case for many Ontarians who called 911 or took to social media to complain.
Kathleen Wynne said she's all for anything authorities can do to find a missing child.
"I think an alert that was that pervasive and that obvious to people was a very good thing," she said.
"I was very impressed actually that it flashed on all of our TV screens right at a time when a lot of people would have been watching a show on a Sunday night."
The provincial police said it was dismayed by the reaction of some in the public who complained that they were inconvenienced by the alert issued in an effort to find a missing child.
It was the first time the provincial police used the enhanced National Alert Aggregation and Dissemination system to advise about a missing eight-to-13-year-old boy that callers said was physically taken and forced into a vehicle in Orillia, Ont.
The new system, which appeared as a red box over top of a broadcast, alerted viewers about a silver Toyota Sequoia in Orillia going to an unknown location.
Insp. Patrick Morris, the Orillia OPP detachment commander, said he couldn't believe some people called 911 to complain about the interruption, adding he fielded calls himself asking why the alert was broadcast outside of the area where the incident occurred.
"Well, the last Amber Alert was about a year ago and the subjects of the Amber Alert were located three hours away by vehicle from the jurisdiction where they were reported missing," he said.
"The geography rapidly expands."
He said time works against police in an abduction. Police used their usual tools, including K9-tracking, increased patrols, canvassing and interviewing more witnesses, but that still didn't lead to the location of the boy.
Then they issued a media release and took to social media to spread the word, but still no sign of the boy.
"So we initiated an Amber Alert," Morris said.
"The fact is within an hour of that alert, we had communicated with people who had first-hand information and they came forward and it led us directly to the young boy."
The boy was later found unharmed.
"It was a familial issue where a young boy was in a bit of distress and grabbed by a family member, who was well intentioned, and brought back home," Morris said. No charges will be laid.
Ontario's Amber Alert is a voluntary co-operative plan between the Ontario Association of Broadcasters, law enforcement agencies, and the provincial transportation ministry.
Amber Alert uses highway message signs, radio, television and cable to immediately broadcast descriptions of kidnap victims, their abductors, and suspect vehicles.
