Rockmart police said the juvenile apparently had left on her own without telling her parents.
Police got the call and initially treated it as a possible child abduction, police said. That is standard protocol these days considering recent events in the news, according to police.
Det. David Gowens said additional units, including a child abduction investigation team, were called in.
The child returned home between 11:30 p.m. and midnight.
Gowens said police also have a system where residents within a certain radius of the missing person report get a recorded telephone call with an emergency alert.
He said calls went out in this case with the idea that someone may have seen the child.
“That’s the hope behind this system, that someone was out in their yard or sitting on the porch and saw the person walking by,” he said.
Gowens said he thinks some may not have answered the telephone when the call went out because it may come up on the caller identification as “emergency communication.” He said some might have thought it was a telemarketer.
He wanted to stress that people should answer the telephone should the word “emergency” come up because it could be an alert.
Post a Comment