Push to create an “ebony alert” for missing black children and women

BUFFALO, NY — When a child goes missing, a community comes together, but sometimes they don't know the child is missing. This is something that particularly affects black communities.

For the Griffin family, this hits home.

“He went out and never came home,” said Brian Griffin, Jaylen Griffin's father.

August 4, 2020 was the last time 12-year-old Jaylen's family saw him.

“Jaylen would always come no matter what. He's going to call his mother. He was a mama’s boy,” Brian said.

When he didn't, they knew something was wrong, but no alert was sent.

“We waited 48 hours and for some reason they put him on the fugitive list,” Brian said.

This means no Amber Alert would be issued.

“It was a very difficult time,” Brian recalls.

So, in the midst of their own physical and emotional struggles, his family did what they could.

“We walked the streets for maybe a week, a week and a half, almost two weeks straight,” Brian said.

As the community came together, the Griffins felt like authorities had failed them.

“I don't want to say it's a race thing, but I think race played a role in this,” Brian added.

“Because if it was a different color kid, they wouldn't be…” added Breana Griffin, Jaylen's sister.

“Exactly,” Brian agreed.

“We have all these photos here of these kids who have been missing for years and nothing is being done about it,” said community organizer Dontaya Davis, sitting at a table full of missing persons notices.

This is why Davis is doing something.

“The Amber Alert – there are so many stipulations,” Davis explained. “If you were missing for more than 24 hours, if there was a car involved, between 18 and 18, right?” The Ebony Alert would change all that.

This new alert would be issued for missing black women and children, aged 12 to 25. This is where most of the coverage disparity lies.

“Just me posting on Facebook or someone else [saying]'Hey, have you seen any of my family' isn't enough,” Davis added. “Let's show their face on the screen. Let's put them on the billboard. Let's have this […] alarming sound coming from your phone.

For Davis, herself a mother and cousin of missing children, this problem affects her directly.

“If we do this, the predators will know they’re doing something and maybe they’ll stop,” she said. “Maybe we will find some of these children who were kidnapped and reunite them with their families.”

An Ebony Alert system was implemented in California on January 1. Since then, 22 alerts have been issued and 13 of the missing people have been found, according to California Sen. Steven Bradford's office.

“You shouldn’t have to do it alone,” Davis said.

Davis has an ongoing petition and is in talks with local politicians about the Ebony Alert.

A bill proposed by former state Sen. Tim Kennedy had no other sponsors and was struck when he left office.

“What I’ve been told is it may take a while,” Davis said.

It is fueled by the faces of these missing people.

“We're at 107 Sheffield, where my son Jaylen was found dead in the attic,” Brian said while sitting on the porch of a Buffalo home.

There's no undoing what happened to Jaylen, and the Griffin family is left with only the “what ifs.”

“[The Ebony Alert] would have changed a lot,” Breana said.

“I believe, to tell the truth, [there] There was quite a big possibility that Jaylen would be home with us,” Brian added.

As they find closure to a chapter and now continue their journey to find justice, they believe this Ebony alert could ease another family's heartbreak.

“I just hope that this gets passed and that it's at least considered, so that other parents or family members don't have to go through the heartbreak that we're going through right now,” Brian said.

Buffalo police officials say a lot of resources have been devoted to Jaylen's case and they take all of these individual cases seriously.