ALBANY, N.Y. (WRGB) — Many people in the Capital Region were awakened by Amber Alerts on their phones early Sunday morning, while others reported receiving the alerts much later or not at all. The alerts were issued for 9-year-old Melina Frattolin around 1:30 a.m., approximately three-and-a-half hours after she was first reported missing. The young girl was later found dead in a shallow pond in Ticonderoga. Her father Luciano Frattolin is now charged in her murder, after initially telling police someone else abducted his daughter.
Captain Robert McConnell of the New York State Police told reporters, “I don’t have the time in front of me, but I can tell you just anytime an amber alert is issued, there’s a balance between providing prompt information to the public but also ensuring that information is accurate and reliable. We don’t want to numb the public with unvetted alerts. So, in this case, it was difficult to confirm some of the initial information provided by the suspect.”
In New York State, an Amber Alert activation requires approval from the State Police Special Victims Unit. Once approved, state police notify all broadcasters in the activation area or areas via fax or email. This includes primary distributors such as the Wireless Emergency Alert System, Department of Transportation road signs, the State Lottery, and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
John Bischoff, Vice President of Missing Children’s Division at the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children, addressed the discrepancies in alert reception. “The reason one cell phone may have received it faster or if at all, has to do with carriers and the way your signal is bouncing off towers. It’s something that’s constantly being evaluated, monitored and fine-tuned to make sure we are getting these alerts out to everyone in a timely manner,” he said.
Some individuals received the alert on Monday, which Bischoff attributed to geo-fencing technology. “If you haven’t been inside a geo-fenced area, and you have your cell phone and you drive into that area, the tower should recognize that you did not receive this alert yet, and deliver it to you,” he explained.
The Center for Missing Children also notifies secondary distributors, including organizations in the trucking and hotel industry, digital billboards, internet service providers, and social media. The center reports that fewer than two percent of all Amber Alerts are false.
Legal experts suggest that Luciano Frattolin could face additional charges for making a false report. Bob Babcock, a partner at Tully Rinckey PLLC, commented, “In this case, given the other charges, it’s going to be something minor in comparison, but, we do have a rise in these kinds of cases across the country.”
CBS6 asked Babcock what is driving an uptick in false reports.
“If you ask members of the criminal defense bar, I think they’d say that people have now begun to use the criminal justice system as a sword. When you have a problem with an individual whether it be a neighbor or a spouse or somebody at your job, sometimes think people think the best thing to do is to file a criminal complaint against them make up some charges against them that’ll get them in hot water and that will achieve their objective in another way.
“We see it family law, it crosses over in the criminal law all the time with allegations of improper conduct by one spouse against another. Maybe the objective at the end of the day is a divorce or a monetary settlement. So people are using the criminal justice system to file charges criminal charges against another individual to act as a sword to bring that person into court.”
