Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Speaker A: You.
[00:00:00] Speaker B: The Daily Gazette Company presents the weighing in podcast, the show that brings you inside the Daily Gazette's feature news column. Now here's your host writer of the weighing in column, Andrew Waite.
[00:00:12] Speaker A: Thanks for listening. I'm Andrew Waite.
Last weekend, our region was gripped by a just frankly horrifying case involving a missing ten month old baby. So on Saturday night, around 11:00 just after security at the General Electric campus in Schenectady contacted the county's emergency dispatch about an intruder. And right now, I'm actually going to turn to a press conference that was given by Schenectady Police Chief Eric Clifford. And during the press conference, he laid out the timeline of events and the way that this unfolded after that initial call came in. So here's Chief Clifford at eleven 04:00.
[00:00:49] Speaker C: P.M. On March 9, the Schnecky County Unified Communications center received a call from GE security that there was a female trespasser on scene and didn't know how she got there, and she claimed to have lost her child.
Responding officers interviewed the female, now known to be Persia Nelson, and began looking for the child.
Unable to locate the child, they requested additional resources to assess where to expand their search.
It took some time, but officers were able to connect an address on Campbell Avenue to the female, and this ultimately led officers to the dead end of 12th street, where they were able to identify where the female went with her baby and a location where she entered the GE campus.
Once that location was established, a thorough search was conducted using canines to track drones and personnel on foot.
At this point, officers were looking for a lost one year old child.
After hours of searching and unable to locate her, state police and state forest rangers were contacted to assist with conducting a grid search on the GE campus.
As the morning came, it was also decided that we could not rule out an abduction or the child being exposed to some other dangerous situation, so we decided to put out an Amber alert.
At 12:30 p.m. One of the search teams on the GE campus found Halo inside a utility tunnel structure located on the GE campus.
Medics were requested and she was brought to Ellis Hospital by members of the scanty fire department and Mohawk Ambulance, where life saving efforts were performed. But unfortunately, she never regained her vitals and was declared deceased at 01:24 p.m.
[00:02:43] Speaker A: And the reason I wanted you to hear the whole timeline is because obviously in these kinds of cases, time is of the essence. And so as you hear it from him, you can see just how time is passing and how decisions are being made. And as part of that, the piece I wanted you to hear directly was the conversation about the decision to issue the Amber alert. And that didn't come until Sunday morning, after drones and dogs and members of several law enforcement agencies had already spent the entire night unsuccessfully searching for the missing baby. And, of course, there's strict criteria that have to be met before an Amber alert is allowed to be issued. But I think that the timeline of events here and the fact that the Amber alert was essentially employed as, if not a last resort, at least it was a second or third level defense instead of as part of the initial reaction, that all of that just calls into question what Amber alerts are supposed to be about. I mean, the whole idea with Amber alert is to mobilize the public and to be able to act quickly if we're dealing with a situation where a kid is in danger and when time is of the essence. So it seems like that should be everyone's goal. But at this point, it feels like there is a kind of hesitancy to use Amber alerts, in part because of this strict criteria. And I get it. If Amber alerts are overused, it essentially becomes the boy who cried wolf and they lose their effectiveness. So we don't want it to go too far. I do think that this recent case last weekend should have us considering the way Amber alerts are used. And so I wrote a piece about it, and here is that piece.
Last Sunday, after searching all night for a ten month old baby who would soon be found dead inside a utility tunnel, police issued an Amber Alert. At least they thought they did. Instead, because of a technical glitch, the notice first went out at 10:10 a.m. Only to local media and law enforcement agencies. The wider alert wouldn't buz the public's phones until 11:15 a.m. While the technology issued delayed the alert by an hour, it's fair to wonder whether the decision on Sunday morning to send out an amber alert already came hours too late. No, I'm not suggesting a different, more merciful outcome was likely in this case. But last weekend's tardy issuance calls into question the purpose of the alerts and the leeway law enforcement officials are given to utilize them. If used too often, Amber alerts designed primarily to provide notice of suspected child abductions risk being compared to the boy who cried wolf. But on the other hand, members of law enforcement shouldn't be hamstrung by strict activation criteria that slows the employment of a critical resource during a press conference, this week's connectivity, police chief Eric Clifford described the timeline of last weekend's tragedy, beginning with the call from General Electric security just after 11:00 p.m. On Saturday, March 9, when police interviewed Persian Nelson, who was 24, after finding her in a building on the GE campus that night, officers learned very quickly about her missing baby, according to Clifford. Unable to locate the child, they requested additional resources to assess where to expand their search, Clifford said. It took some time.
It took some time. Police had to invest time to track down where Nelson, who was mentally out of it and, quote, didn't know where she was, according to Clifford, had entered the GE campus and therefore where to focus their search. At that point, the baby could very well have been alive. Found up to her chest in water about 8ft down a pipe. The ten month old halo Branton died of hypothermia, not drowning, according to Schenectady County District Attorney Robert Carney. If the Amber Alert had been sent immediately after police knew of a missing baby, doesn't it stand a reason they'd have possibly saved valuable time? Wasn't there the off chance that the same people who eventually helped police determine where to search would have seen the alert and made a call? The entire course of the investigation and search could have been altered? Likely, no, but maybe come Sunday, hours after bringing in resources including dogs, drones, state officers and forest rangers to conduct a harrowing search in the rain and cold, police ultimately issued an Amber Alert, Clifford said. As the morning came, it was also decided that we could not rule out an abduction or the child being exposed to some other dangerous situation. So we decided to put out an Amber Alert. So why the reluctance? The public information officer for state Police Troop G, Trooper Stephanie O'Neill, explained via email that the state's amber alert program requires reasonable belief by the investigating law enforcement agency that an abduction occurred, rather than the case being a missing person. However, she noted, quote, each case must be appraised on its own merits. And she noted that other factors, such as a child's age or pre existing medical condition, could justify the alarm. O'Neill said the strict criteria based on the US Department of Justice recommended criteria is to prevent Amber alerts from being overused. She said absence of significant information that an abduction has occurred could lead to abuse of the system and ultimately weaken its effectiveness. There's definitely logic to that point. If Amber alerts were sent for every teenager who's run away from his or her parents, the system would cease to be useful. But has this concern gone too far in the other direction? Have we given too much heft to the strict activation criteria to the point where law enforcement have become too cautious? A situation like a one year old unaccounted for in the middle of the night warrants a widespread search.
Law enforcement leaders should feel empowered to use every tool at their disposal, and use that tool expeditiously. If the explanation for a missing baby ends up being innocent and the Amber alert sent unnecessarily, the worst that happens is a collective sigh of relief. Yes, there is surely a threshold at which people would stop paying attention to Amber alerts, but we're nowhere near that point. Last year, only four alerts were administered in all of New York state, and Sunday's alert was the first of this year in our region. Only one alert was issued last year, and alerts only go to people within a specific geographical boundary. We'd all be fine with several more phone buzzes and highway signs if it meant having a greater chance of saving more kids.
After a nine year old girl went missing last year from Monroe Lake State park, state police sent an Amber alert, but they didn't do so until the morning after the girl disappeared while riding her bike during a family camping trip. Once the girl was found, people generally came away with renewed appreciation for the important mobilization that comes from Amber alerts, even if the kidnapper's own stupidity in leaving a ransom note with his fingerprint on it had more to do with finding the girl than the region wide alarm.
Following that case, state Assemblyman Angelo Santa Barbara of Rotterdam introduced legislation to expedite the activation of Amber alerts. The bill would, among other changes, give parents or legal guardians the ability to request state police issue an Amber alert. In last weekend's case, the baby's father could theoretically have made such a request if the law were on the books, Santa Barbara said of his bill, the safety and well being of our children are of utmost importance, and every available tool must be utilized to protect them. That's absolutely right. When a child is missing and possibly in danger, we should harness every available option rather than fret and dither in deference to administrative hoops. Think about the alternative. In November 2020, 214 year old Samantha Humphrey went missing in Schenectady. Chief Clifford told me last fall that an Amber alert was considered when Humphrey went missing, but ultimately, quote, the incident did not fit the criteria.
Three months later, the teenager's body was found in the Mohawk beside the stockade. Would an Amber alert have changed the outcome? Would an Amber Alert have saved Humphrey or halo there is a glimmer of a chance, however faint. And when we're talking about tragic cases in which a girl is found dead in a river or a baby found in a pipe, we need to know. We did all we could, and this week we've got some reader responses. So these are to do with a piece I wrote. Well, I mean, really, the news broke and had nothing to do with me that Mysi, the Museum of Innovation and Science, there is a deal now in the county that is going to keep the museum at its current location. Schenectady county is going to pay for a study to basically determine what needs to happen at the site in order to prevent flooding from happening and also make renovations that make it viable in the future. But it's pretty big news that that museum had been talking about moving. I wrote a column, did a podcast about it. It is now going to stay put for five years. So readers have reacted. So Lois in Niskiuna, she said, I'm thrilled that Mysi is staying in Schenectady and I hope it will get some support from the city and county. Don't be too hard on yourself for buying into the quote sky is falling sentiment I'm fairly certain that your article precipitated the renewed interest in supporting the museum. I call it journalism that gets the work done. Thank you for that. And yeah, in the piece I admitted that I had bought in a bit to the sky is falling narrative that the museum would need to be relocated based on some flooding issues and essentially assemblymen Santa Barbara and others were like, well, not so fast, let's look at it. And that's the direction that's going. So thank you to Lois for giving me some grace there. I don't know if that's quite deserved, but appreciate it. And then in the other direction, I heard from Phil Barrett, who is the town supervisor of Clifton park and also the chair of the board of supervisors in Schenectady county. And he notably had been in the media talking about maybe trying to woo Mysai is a bit too strong, but definitely expressing a willingness to host a future Mysi site within Saratoga county if indeed Mysi did need to move. So he wrote to me and he said, I was pleased to read Schenectady county officials have finally stepped up and taken at least some action through the promise of conducting an engineering study on the Maisai building. Perhaps I've missed something, but where is the evidence the museum has been saved? How do you know it's staying in Schenectady? Not being a pain in the ass. I've seen this play before. And then he pointed me. So he wrote a blog post about it where there was the children's museum in Rensalier county, which then now ended up located in Saratoga county and basically just pointing to the writing was on the wall with that facility and people thought it could be saved and ultimately ended up moving. And so Phil, who again is willing to talk about hosting Maisai in Saratoga county, is pointing to the past and saying, I wonder if there's some lessons with CMOs? And so I'm just going to read just a short excerpt from his blog post where he talks specifically about that. He said, this whole situation is eerily similar to the experience with CMOs, which was a museum that experienced dire financial issues and closed a few years ago. In a previous post, I provided some details of the situation involving CMOs prior to its demise. I hope the same result isn't reality for Mysi. I want to thank the individuals from government and the private sector who have contacted me and expressed interest in helping Mysi. I have said from the beginning the goal is to help Mysai up to and including a relocation if that became the optimal result for a sustainable future. It was never my intention to create animosity or competition with our friends in Schenectady County. I will be the first to applaud Schenectady officials if there is a happy ending to this story. So Phil Barrett not convinced that Maisai is staying put despite a deal that promises five years in its current location. And I suppose time will tell. That's it for this week's episode of the Weighing in podcast. Thanks to Zebulon Schmidt, who does the technical editing for this podcast. I'm Andrew Waite. Take care.
