Amber Alert Jars Southeast Michigan Residents Awake

Thousands of southeast Michigan residents received an Amber Alert message on thier cell phones early Saturday morning. (Photo via WEYI-WBSF Facebook page)

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Michigan State Police are defending a first-of-its-kind Amber Alert issued about 5 a.m. Saturday for a 6-year-old believed to have been abducted by her father.

Michigan State Police Lt. David Kaiser told The Flint Journal/MLive.com that he heard “rumblings that people were upset” about being awoken by the jarring alert tones, but said officials must act quickly in missing child cases.

Saturday was the first time state police have used the wireless Amber Alert system. The alert was blast in a 200-mile radius of Flint, where the girl was last seen in a situation that family members described as “escalating.”

Kaiser dismissed the criticisms.

“If it was their 6-year-old girl, they’d want us to do everything in our powers to make sure their girl was safe,” he said. “Time is of the essence in something like this.”

The alert was canceled after the child was found safe in a Port Huron apartment complex about 11 a.m. Saturday.

Detective Sgt. Sarah Krebs, who works in the MSP’s missing persons coordination unit, said the ability to notify thousands of people at once through cell phone technology is an important tool – “one of the most critical alerts we have,” she said.

Though people were jolted awake, “children don’t get abducted during banking hours very often,”Kerbs said. “We don’t put out Amber Alerts very often.”