Search for missing Calgary boy prompts concerns over when Amber Alerts are issued

The search for a missing 11-year-old Calgary boy is into its fifth day. As the search drags on, questions are being asked about why an Amber Alert wasn't issued sooner.

Two days after an Amber Alert was issued for a 11 year old Calgary boy who is non-verbal, an intense search continues, involving more than 300 police officers, 120 trained search and rescue members, along with dozens of other volunteers from the community.

The child, known simply as “Parker” for purposes of the search, went missing on Thursday, July 16 — but it wasn’t until two days later that police issued an Amber Alert for the missing boy.

Normally, his disappearance would not meet the legal criteria for an Amber Alert, but the government of Alberta granted an exemption because of the “unique circumstances of this investigation.”

According to Calgary police, Parker is neurodivergent and non-verbal and may become even more scared if confronted by strangers.

For Lethbridge resident Tina Heron, the boy’s disappearance bears some similarities to her own “living hell.”

Heron’s 6-year-old grandson, Darius MacDougall, went missing last September while camping with family members at Island Lake campground, about 250 km south of Calgary in the Crowsnest Pass.

Despite a massive search lasting 11 days, involving hundreds of police officers and search and rescue members from Alberta, British Columbia and Saskatchewan, no trace of the boy was found — and, to the disappointment of the family, no Amber Alert was ever issued.

“If we could have got an Amber Alert right away, more people would have known. The traffic going back and forth by the highway — I think it would have helped a lot,” Heron said.

Since then, family and friends of Darius MacDougall, have been advocating for changes to Canada’s Amber Alert system, giving police more power on when to issue an Amber Alert.

While the criteria varies from province to province, generally police need to have “reasonable grounds” that the child has been abducted or they are immediate danger of serious harm or death.

“We’re looking for legislative action. You know, we have a serious gap in our Amber Alert system,” said Ronald de Gagne, a friend of the MacDougall family, who has helped collect about 20,000 signatures on a petition so far, calling for changes.

“It’s about giving the police the discretion to have all the tools necessary when a child goes missing,” de Gagne added.

He says the decision not to issue an Amber Alert for Darius MacDougall and the more recent decision by the Alberta government to grant an exemption, allowing police to issue an Amber Alert for the missing Calgary boy, shows that the current “alert criteria is too rigid or too strict.”

The President of Search and Rescue Alberta, Brian Carriere, cautions that any changes made to the Amber Alert criteria would need to balanced with the possibility of creating “alert fatigue.”

“I watched it. When that that alert went out, everybody was going, ‘Oh, it’s a tornado somewhere in there.’ They kind of moved on.  So we have to be very cognizant of when these are used and when they’re not used,” Carriere said.

That’s a concern shared by Amanda Pick, CEO of the Missing Children’s Society of Canada.

‘The concern is around desensitizing or people just not responding to it,” said Pick.

“I would say that any time a child’s life is at risk, we want to be there and protect them and find them as quickly as possible. So it does make sense, but I just also think it’s important for people to know there’s a system in place that has been functioning.”

“That’s why police do the risk assessments; they use the tools as they determine that the risk is increasing. And that’s what we saw with Parker — we saw that as time went on and because Parker is artistic, non-verbal, there was very specific and unique details,” added Pick.

In a statement emailed to , an Alberta government spokesperson responded to concerns about the Amber Alert criteria by saying, “Alberta’s government worked closely with the Calgary Police Service (CPS) to assess the situation and determined that using the emergency alert system to increase the public’s awareness of this missing child was important.”

“In the coming months, we will be reviewing the alert system to identify best practices used across the country and assess whether any improvements can be made, ensuring Albertans have the most effective tools possible to help bring missing children and vulnerable people home,” the statement added.

Parker was last seen at his day home in the 0 to 100 block of Connaught Drive, in northwest Calgary sometime between 11:08 a.m. and 11:41 a.m. on Thursday, July 16.

On Saturday, police said CCTV cameras also captured images of Parker on Thursday at 12:52 p.m. in the 5000 to 6000 block of Travis Crescent Northeast — that’s a distance of about five to six km between the two locations, according to police.

Police said some clothing was also found in the 0 to 100 block of Northmount Drive Northwest that is believed to belong to the boy who was last seen shirtless, wearing grey shots and black noise-cancelling headphones.

On Monday, police released new CCTV video of Parker in the area of McKnight Boulevard and Centre Street that was taken around 12:47 p.m. on Thursday, July 16.

They are also making a plea for anyone who lives in the community of Thorncliffe and who has CCTV footage — even if it doesn’t have images of Parker — to please submit it to police.

“What may seem insignificant at first, may have a massive ramification on the investigation,” said CPS acting Staff Sgt. Scott Gutterson.

Calgary police describe the search as the largest the city has seen in several years, with officers from both city police and the RCMP searching wooded areas, waterways, alleys, and knocking on the doors of hundreds of homes, some more than once.

Calgary police estimate that so far officers have walked an area about 6,500 km long — approximately the same distance between Calgary and Dublin, Ireland.

A patrol car has also been playing some of Parker’s favourite Disney music, in hopes of drawing him out to where he can be seen by the people searching for him.

City residents are also being encouraged to continue to check their backyards, inside sheds, garages and RVs, under their deck — any “nook and cranny” a boy a small as Parker could hide.

So far, Gutterson said police have received more than 175 tips from the public that have been investigated. Unfortunately, so far, none of those tips have been successful in helping to find Parker.