Navajo Nation moves to create Amber Alert system
WINDOW ROCK
The Navajo Nation Law and Order committee met with Navajo Nation Department of Public Safety Director Jesse Delmar on Monday to discuss a course of action to the nation’s lack of an Amber Alert system.
In the wake of the Ashlynne Mike tragedy, Navajo lawmakers came together to speak with Delmar about what should be done to begin streamlining a system. Having met with Navajo Nation President Russell Begay earlier that morning, Delmar said Begaye has put a taskforce together to spearhead the development of the much-needed tool.
Begaye assigned Delmar and Director of Telecommunication Theresa Hopkins to head the development of the taskforce. Delmar said that he also placed Harlan Cleveland, emergency services coordinator for the Navajo Nation Emergency Operations Center, on the taskforce.
This taskforce has set a 60-day timeframe to get a system in place.
Law and Order chair Edmund Yazzie (Churchrock/Iyanbito/ Mariano Lake/ Pinedale/ Smith Lake/Thoreau) expressed his own disappointment with the Navajo Nation Police-Shiprock District and said the lag time on the Amber Alert to notify about Mike’s abduction was inexcusable. He asked for an investigation on the department as well as the officers who answered the call.
The older brother of Mike’s funeral he notified police of the children’s disappearance at 10:30 p.m. May 2, but the Amber Alert was not issued until 2:30 a.m. the following morning.
“There needs to be an investigation done, neutrally, on this district and how they handled this,” said Yazzie. “We can’t just sit back and say ‘OK, it happened. We learned from it. We’ll move forward and we’re going to prevent this from happening again.’ How many times have we said that?”
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Highway 264,
I-40, WB @ Winslow