Ontario Provincial Police say a software update by a third party resulted in an Amber Alert not going out to cellphones across the province this week.
An Amber Alert was issued early Thursday for a three-month-old girl believed to have been abducted by her father – she was later found safe and the father was arrested.
OPP say the Amber Alert sent just before 3:30 a.m. went out to cellphones in the area around Roseneath, Ont., where the girl was last seen, but did not go to cellphones provincewide.
They say today that an automated third-party software update led to a technical issue that prevented the alert from being distributed as it was meant to.
OPP say they contacted the Provincial Emergency Operations Centre when they realized the alert wasn’t going out properly and it was able to issue the alert on the OPP’s behalf to LTE-connected wireless devices in the local area where the child was last seen.
Police say investigators had reason to believe the suspect had not travelled far and say the OPP’s Amber Alert system is now once again fully functional.
OPP say they are taking steps to address the issue, including creating a backup to circumvent automatic software updates in the future, creating a manual process to enable access to the Alert Ready system without third-party software and continuing to test the system on a regular basis.
Amber Alerts are issued provincewide to cellphones and media outlets to help solicit public assistance in the search for a child who is believed to be abducted and at risk of harm.