Tacoma police Thursday were still trying to determine what happened between the time Briana Troyer and Terrence Powell left a bowling alley and were found sleeping at a house in the North End.
Detectives interviewed Powell, a 21-year-old sex offender, after the two were found Wednesday morning. He has not been arrested. They still were waiting to speak with Briana, a 16-year-old girl who is developmentally disabled.
Briana left Tower Lanes on Sixth Avenue with Powell after she took part in a high school bowling match Tuesday afternoon. Based on a tip after an Amber Alert and a citywide emergency phone call, officers found the two Wednesday morning at a home belonging to an acquaintance of Powell’s.
In the meantime, officials plan to sit down and complete an “after-action report” regarding the automated phone call, which went out at 4:20 a.m. Wednesday to 60,000 land lines in Tacoma to alert residents that Briana was missing. The call was made at the request of the police department’s Child Abduction Response Team.
It was the first time an automated call went out for an Amber Alert in Pierce County.
The system has been used for so-called community alerts when endangered people are missing. Calls went out to select groups based on geographic information when two young boys ran away in Tacoma earlier this year and when a 16-year-old, developmentally disabled South Hill girl went missing in 2010.
Employees of Pierce County Department of Emergency Management, whose database was used to make the call, will review what went well with the call and what could be improved.
Of particular note will be the decision not to leave a message on answering machines for fear of overwhelming the system because of the large number of people being called, spokeswoman Sheri Badger said.
Police officials and members of the abduction response team plan to review their procedures related to the call.
Chief Don Ramsdell was unavailable for comment Thursday. The CART team declined to speak about the incident.
Police spokesman Mark Fulghum said it’s likely the department would use the system again if there was a life-saving emergency the public could help with.
“The ultimate goal is to bring the missing person home safely,” he said. “Yes, the time was taken into consideration. The unhappy folks were not totally unexpected. But if this was your child, would you want us to wait?”
stacia.glenn@ thenewstribune.com 253-597-8653
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