HAMMOND, La. — After the Tangipahoa Parish Sheriff’s Office requested an AMBER alert in the disappearance of 4-year-old Erin and 6-year-old Jalie Brunett, it took almost 3 hours for Louisiana State Police to issue it. Erin Brunett was found dead shortly after. In a log, LSP called TPSO’s initial application “incomplete.” This week, a state lawmaker called for the AMBER alert request process to be simplified in Louisiana.
“You have a sheriff saying one thing, State Police is saying something,” said State Rep. Dixon McMakin of Baton Rouge in an interview Friday. On Thursday, he sent a letter to Governor Jeff Landry to “express [his] concern” over the state’s AMBER alert system and find ways to “improve” it.
On the morning of June 13, Callie Brunett was found dead in her Loranger home. Her two daughters, 4-year-old Erin and 6-year-old Jalie, were not there.
Logs provided to WBRZ by both LSP and TPSO show that around 9:30 that morning, TPSO requested an AMBER alert for Erin and Jalie. Around 10:30, LSP’s log shows “it received an incomplete AMBER Alert application from TPSO.”
TPSO Sheriff Daniel Edwards disputed that at a press conference last week. “To say that we provided incomplete info, I think that’s an inaccurate portrayal,” he said.
TPSO’s log shows that at 10:30, someone at the state’s law enforcement information center, known as a fusion center, contacted TPSO “stating the request doesn’t qualify as an AMBER alert.”
According to LSP’s website, AMBER alerts are only issued when “law enforcement believes the circumstances surrounding the abduction indicate that the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death,” and “there must be enough descriptive information about the child, abductor, and/or suspect's vehicle to believe an immediate broadcast alert will assist in the recovery of the child.”
Over the next 20 minutes, TPSO’s log shows phone calls were made back and forth, including one instance in which “[TPSO Chief Jimmy] Travis speaks with Jonathan Kemp who is over at the Fusion Center. Travis questions the Fusion Center as to why this does not qualify as an amber [sic] alert. Kemp says he is going to make some calls to see exactly what is going on.”
“I know that we reached out and asked several times what was taking so long,” said Sheriff Edwards, “and they never told us there was missing or incomplete information.”
A little after noon, TPSO’s log says Kemp called Chief Travis and let him know the alert would be coming soon. At 12:28 p.m. it was broadcasted.
Rep. McMakin believes the delay could have been prevented if the state had a more streamlined process for requesting AMBER alerts. “Even though the AMBER Alert System is a national guideline that we have, doesn't mean that we can't be at the forefront to modernize that process,” he told WWL Louisiana.
His vision is both a simpler, online form and a more direct approval process between LSP and the local law enforcement agency making the request. “Let's immediately put those two people in contact and have them going back and forth if anything is needed. So we break any of the disparities between who's talking to who and when that might be.”
Rep. McMakin said he plans to try and meet with LSP leaders in the near future to discuss his concerns.
In a statement alongside the log, LSP noted that it needs to perform a “thorough examination of each case” before an AMBER alert can be issued. TPSO did not respond to a request for comment Friday.
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