Detroiters woke up Tuesday to see the city’s new Emerald Alert system in action for the very first time. Within an hour of its launch, the program proved its value. It helped locate 74-year-old Marjorie Louise Brown Kilpatrick, a Black elder who had gone missing the day before. By late afternoon, it was deployed again, this time to find three missing Black girls—Mariah Johnson, 13, her sister Saniya Johnson, 15, and their friend Aaliyah Hamilton, 16. They too were safely found. For a city where families have long carried the weight of unanswered questions when loved ones disappear, the speed and responsiveness of Tuesday’s alerts carried real significance.

The Emerald Alert system is Detroit’s answer to a longstanding gap. Amber Alerts—used nationwide for missing children—do not apply to

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