Oakland Police Lieutenant credits Raiders QB Derek Carr for retweet assist in finding missing child

We’ve all seen the facebook messages and tweets that go out when a child is missing. Sometimes we share them, sometimes, for whatever reason, we do not. Social media is a powerful thing. It can take a piece of news and spread it faster than just about any other vehicle. And when a celebrity or sports star gives it a share, it adds to the impact exponentially.

Making every citizen a watchdog is the ultimate way to find a missing person or a suspect. Well before they had the power of social media, authorities used the AMBER Alert system as a means of tracking down a missing child. Now the two work together.

AMBER Alert sent out a call to help locate a missing 3-year-old Oakland child on Saturday. Here is the release:

Among those who saw the alert was Raiders’ quarterback Derek Carr, who simply pressed share. Not an hour and a half later, the Oakland Police Department sent out the message they had spotted the vehicle and located the child.

Oakland Police Lieutenant Chris Bolton noticed Carr’s retweet and credited the Raiders quarterback with the swift apprehension of the missing child.

While it may be impossible to know for sure if the person who tipped off the police was made aware of the AMBER Alert because of Carr’s retweet, even the off chance that could be the case is worth it. With the touch of a button and Carr sent the message out to his near 257K followers, many of whom would either have not seen it or scrolled past it had the QB of their favorite team not brought it to their attention.

That’s how you use your platform as a sports star.