Portland FBI Addresses Kyron Horman BOLO: 'We Do Everything We Can to Check Out These Sightings'

"We do everything we can to check out these sightings, but we get these alleged sightings all the time when we have a national case like this," Steele told the press late Saturday night.

BOLO Raised False Hope ?

The FBI had no desire to raise false hope in citizens (or the family and friends) of Kyron Horman when they issued the Saturday night bolo. The bolo, for a 94 van in the vicinity of West Virginia, was just part of their job duty. The premiere law enforcement agency hoped as much as anyone else that the bolo would prove a breakthrough in the case. But it didn't.

The alleged sighting of Kyron Horman didn't pan out to be the missing 7-year-old from Oregon when police officers arrived on the scene, according to Charleston PD. So anyone hoping that the case was about to have a happy ending were sorely disappointed and some were a little upset the 'false alarm' was raised.

FBI and Kyron Horman Case

The FBI has to do its job, however, which includes issuing a bolo, if it is warranted. Law enforcement in Portland and elsewhere all have to do aspects of the job which sometimes confuses the public, especially in matters of bolo issuing.

John Q Public doesn't always realize that issuing a bolo and having concrete proof that a sighting is 'for real' are two different things.

In addition, law enforcement is not anything like the press; they don't advertise what they are doing and they don't always explain it when it becomes public knowledge. This can lead to much speculation. The press, on the other hand, are mandated to report the 'news,' which can include the issuing of a bolo, even if it may not lead to anything.

Issuing Bolo's and Believing Tips a Fine Line

Just because a law enforcement entity issues a bolo--and the press reports about it--doesn't mean that the press or the FBI always believe the bolo will produce the intended person being sought, or that the tip is even legitimate, necessarily. But they don't have room to discount it in a case like Kyron Horman, which has national attention.

Kyron Horman is still missing and the FBI had to act on that tip, and so did 911 dispatchers, sending out the distress call to patrol officers in the vicinity of the Advance Auto Parts store where the sighting took place. The press had to do their jobs too: report the bolo, report the 911 dispatch call and report the unsatisfactory results.

In the end, citizens may be upset that it was a false alarm, but if the steps hadn't been taken by the FBI, the dispatcher and the press and it had been Kyron Horman, how do you think the citizens would have been then?

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Sources
KOINLocal6.com
FBI.gov