Saturday afternoon, an 80-year-old man left his home “L’air du temps”, rue des Haisses in Chênée. Described as disoriented, he was quickly the subject of a wanted notice issued by the police, whose officers also carried out door-to-door canvassing. An hour later, the man was fortunately found safe.
But, in the meantime, a Be Alert had been triggered by the Liège police, with the approval of the mayor. Citizens residing 1.5 km from the home received, on their mobile phones and smartphones, the following message: “BE- Alert – Liège Mr. MELUN has short gray hair. Request to verify your home to detect the presence of a garden shed cellar”
Some people thought it was a joke. Others were concerned by misunderstanding the meaning of this cryptic notification. Especially since some people, even more stressed by the message, were not near their homes at that time… while others received the alert only on Sunday.
Was it essential to use such an alert level in the circumstances? “This is not foreseen in the use of BE-Alert, normally reserved for emergency situations, security alerts, information and protection measures”, indicates Thomas Gijs, spokesperson for the crisis center national, which oversees the system. “However, the tool is available to municipalities and provinces, which activate it independently.”
If it is happy to be able to find (fortunately) a person who briefly disappeared, does not using such a tool outside of its primary use risk compromising its power?
The mayor’s chief of staff, Marc Minet, considers that it was justified. “It was cold and police believed the person was in danger and needed to be found before dark due to the risk of hypothermia.” And to ensure that other BE-Alerts of the same type could still be launched in the future. Even in the case of searching for criminals. “Even if the idea is not to sound the alarm every day.”
At the Liège police, where we underline the interest of the system when it comes to very geographically reaching a neighborhood, we however estimate that in the event of searching for a criminal, there is a risk of creating a some panic.
All of this will probably be re-discussed between the different managers.
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