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Why wasn't an Amber Alert issued in missing kids case?

With Tommie Johnson’s face ripped out of the photo, Alisha Whitehead holds a photo of 23-month-old Ashonti Johnson and 8-month-old Tommie Johnson III who were taken Sunday night, July 26, by Tommie L. Johnson Jr., then found Monday morning at 901 Second St. in a trash bin.

Staff photo by Jim Witmer With Tommie Johnson’s face ripped out of the photo, Alisha Whitehead holds a photo of 23-month-old Ashonti Johnson and 8-month-old Tommie Johnson III who were taken Sunday night, July 26, by Tommie L. Johnson Jr., then found Monday morning at 901 Second St. in a trash bin.

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By James Cummings, Staff Writer Updated 1:20 AM Tuesday, July 28, 2009

DAYTON — No Amber Alert was issued Sunday night as Dayton police looked for two children who had been taken from their mother by the father of one of the children. The children were missing overnight and eventually were found in a trash bin behind an East Second Street business.

Police officials said there are tight criteria for the issuing of an Amber Alert, and Sunday’s incident didn’t qualify because there was no indication the man meant to harm the children.

“It wasn’t an abduction,” said Sgt. Thomas Flanders of the police department’s special victims squad. “The couple had been living together, and the man had custody rights.”

The Ohio Amber Alert Guidebook says an Amber Alert should be issued for a child only when law enforcement believes a person under 18 has been taken and “the abduction poses a credible threat of immediate danger of serious bodily harm or death to the child.” In the case of a family abduction, the guideline says an alert should be issued only if an investigation determines the child is in immediate danger.

Dayton Police Director and Chief Richard Biehl said Amber Alerts have to be used sparingly, otherwise the public could come to think of them as routine, making it less likely that people will take action when an alert is issued.

In the case of the Johnson children abduction, Biehl said the sergeant in command at the scene determined that the case did not fit the criteria for an Amber Alert. “The information he had at the scene didn’t indicate they were in danger,” Biehl said. “Even the children’s mother didn’t think they were in danger.”

Biehl said officers decided to direct their energies to checking out the various accounts Johnson gave for the children’s whereabouts.

He said that even if an Amber Alert had been issued, it wouldn’t have affected the way the case came out. Biehl said if police knew the children were in a particular vehicle, then it might have been helpful to put out a public description of the vehicle so that citizens could be on the lookout.

In this case, the only description to distribute would be a description of what the children were wearing.

He said there’s very little chance a citizen search would have found the children in a trash bin about two miles away from where police took Johnson into custody.

Flanders said Dayton has only issued three or four Amber Alerts since 2004, and all of them involved direct threats to the safety of abducted children. The most recent case happened earlier this month when a man took off with his son and sent photos and text messages saying he and the boy “were about to leave the Earth.”

The man was apprehended before the Amber Alert had been broadcast, Flanders said.

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