It's highly unlikely the kid is in any danger from his father. The vast majority of child abductions in this country are committed by relatives or acquaintances - estranged parents and such who usually mean the children no harm.
There are 4 criteria for issuing an AMBER Alert, one of which is, "The child must be at risk of serious injury or death." So even though AMBER Alerts are only supposed to be issued in “the most serious child-abduction cases,” they are nevertheless used in domestic cases like this one, cases where the AMBER Alert might actually serve to escalate an otherwise manageable situation. If the police swoop in, there's a big stand off, the father might panic, either kill himself or the police kill him, and this will be marked down as a successful AMBER Alert recovery. yay.
The overwhelming majority of abducted children who are murdered by their abductor are killed within 3 hours of the abduction. The overwhelming majority of AMBER Alerts are issued well after that 3 hour window has closed.
According to the DOJ's
2014 Amber Alert Report, of the 186 AMBER Alerts, involving 239 children, issued from Jan. 1, 2014, to Dec. 31, 2014, 72 children involved in 52 AMBER Alert cases were successfully recovered as a direct result of those respective AMBER Alerts being issued.
Of those 72 children successfully recovered as a direct result of the AMBER Alert, 41 cases where 57 were abducted by a family member (FA - 79%) and turns out was in no physical danger at all, 10 cases where 14 were abducted by a nonfamily member (NFA - 19%), and 1 case where 1 child (1%) was listed as LIM (Lost, injured or otherwise missing).
Of the 239 children reported in AMBER Alerts that were recovered deceased, none of them were listed as FA. 4 of them were NFA, and 2 ended up being listed as NIL (one before the Alert, and one after recovery).
Yes, I know, if it saves just one child then it's all worth it. But as criminologist Timothy Griffin
noted, the numbers show it to be chiefly "crime control theater" in that it "creates the appearance but not the fact of crime control."
The NY State Police believe the father in this case is headed to the Bronx. Let's hope the kid is recovered and we can have another success story.