An 81-year-old Inglewood woman has been missing since Tuesday, prompting the California Highway Patrol to issue a Silver Alert covering Los Angeles and Orange counties. Rosa Chavez was last seen on foot at 11:45 a.m. near West Manchester Boulevard and Cedar Avenue in Inglewood, wearing a red shirt, blue jeans and a black hat. She stands 5 feet 2 inches tall, weighs about 120 pounds, and has brown hair and brown eyes.
The alert was activated by CHP on behalf of the Inglewood Police Department, which notified the state agency on Wednesday, according to a bulletin shared by CHP – Alerts. Chavez is officially classified as an at-risk missing person, and officers are urging anyone who spots her to call 911 immediately. The gap between her last sighting on Tuesday and the alert going out two days later is not explained in the bulletin.
Silver Alerts like this one exist under a specific legal framework. California’s program was established in 2012 under Senate Bill 1047 and is codified in California Government Code ยง 8594.10, which authorizes public notifications when a missing person is 65 or older, or cognitively impaired, and determined to be at risk. Before requesting activation, local police must satisfy five specific criteria laid out in that statute, including exhausting local search resources and determining the missing person is in peril.
How the Alert Reaches the Public
Once Inglewood police made that determination, the request went to the California Highway Patrol’s Emergency Notification and Tactical Alert Center in Sacramento, which operates around the clock as the state’s designated coordinator for reviewing and activating Silver Alerts on behalf of local agencies. CHP then pushes the information out through variable message signs on freeways, broadcast Emergency Alert System messages, electronic flyers and social media, according to a document from CalAlerts.org, in hopes of generating tips from drivers and residents across the region…