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Stacey Butler Reporting...The Amber Alert was activated 10 hours after the toddler Acacia Bishop was taken from her Great Grandmother's home in Salt Lake County. Acacia's family members are angry police didn't issue it sooner.
A timeline explains just HOW the decision was made.
Monday morning at 4:00 am, signs like this one lit up across the state.
It was earlier, at 6:00 pm Sunday night, the family members called police and officers placed Kelley Lodmell in a statewide database in an attempt to locate her -- called an ATL.
That same hour they issue an ATL on a man who helped Lodmell kidnap Acacia last year.
By 8:00 pm the possible suspect is questioned and cleared.
For the next three hours detectives interview Acacia's parents and great grand parents. Sheriff Kennard says their stories conflict.
Sheriff Aaron Kennard, Salt Lake County: “THE MOTHER OF THE CHILD SAID THE BABY IS NOT IN DANGER, THE GRANDFATHER SAID I FEEL THAT THE BABY IS IN DANGER. WHO TAKES PRECEDENCE??"
Officers continue to scour areas where family members say Kelley may have taken the toddler. And deputies learn of Kelley's mental and criminal history. But it would be hours before the alert is issued.
Sheriff Aaron Kennard, Salt Lake County: “WE DON'T WANT TO BE CRYING WOLF ALL THE TIME."
By 1:00 a.m. the captain of the detective division is contacted. He investigates the criteria as required under the Amber Alert protocol:
Evidence of an actual abduction. The child is fifteen or younger. An imminent threat to the child. Substantial information available to the public to help locate child.
Two and a half hours later, Sheriff Kennard approves the Amber alert for 4:00 a.m. activation.
Sheriff Aaron Kennard, Salt Lake County: "WHAT KEPT ME FROM ISSUING THE AMBER ALERT WAS THAT FACT THAT IT WAS A GRANDMOTHER AND IT HAD HAPPENED PREVIOUS."
But family members say had the alert been activated sooner, Kelley could have been stopped in Utah.
Sheriff Aaron Kennard, Salt Lake County: "YOU'RE ASKING ME NOW -- WHY I DIDN'T ISSUE IT EARLIER AND MONDAY MORNING I WAS BEING ASKED NUMEROUS TIMES BY YOU THE PRESS WHY I EVEN ISSUED IT ALL BECAUSE IT WAS THE GRANDMOTHER."
At 4:00 a.m. The Amber alert was in effect. But by then Kelley Lodmell was likely past state lines.
The Utah Attorney General's Office met yesterday to review how the system was activated, and the most efficient way to notify all of the news media.
