Bryan's Call — Endangered Missing Persons Alert

On August 14, 2025, Bryan Vasquez, a 12-year-old, non-verbal autistic child, wandered from his home into a nearby lagoon. Two weeks later, Bryan was located and met with his untimely death.  During this time, there were no local alert notifications to broadcast out immediately to nearby neighbors and to local citizens when people who are defined as a “missing vulnerable person” are discovered missing.

Unfortunately for Bryan’s specific case, he did not fit the criteria for the National Amber Alert or Silver Alert Activation.

To ensure that children and adults who are categorized as missing vulnerable person similar to Bryan, The New Orleans City Council, The New Orleans Mayor’s Office, The New Orleans Police Department (NOPD), New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management (NOCEM), and the New Orleans Police & Justice Foundation (NOPJF), have partnered together to activate a robust local Bryan’s Call — Endangered Missing Persons Alert.

The mission of Bryan’s Call — Endangered Missing Persons Alerts is to instantly notify citizens in Orleans Parish to assist in the search for and safe recovery of any missing person regardless of age with cognitive, developmental, mental, emotional, physical, or age-related impairments whose disappearance poses a credible threat to the safety or health of themselves or others.

Bryan’s Call consists of:

• NOPD District Units making quick notifications to members of the NOPD’s Special Victims Division (SVD).
• Quickly vetting preliminary information with SVD immediately notifying NOPD’s Public Office to activate the NOLA Ready Alert System, via NOCEM.
• SVD notifying the NOPJF to activate electronic billboards within the metropolitan areas and pushing Ring Doorbell alerts with critical information and pictures of the missing person.
• SVD notifying partnering agencies for assistance in search and investigations such as the Louisiana State Police- Child Recovery and Endangered Persons Support Team (LSP- CREST), FBI, HSI, US Marshals Task Force, and other support units.
• NOPD Chapter 41.23, Missing Person Reporting and Public Alerts, revisions with annual training police training.
• Alert tracking, annual reporting, and publishing online data.

How does Bryan's Call work?

Once NOPD receives information or a call for service that a child or adult who is deemed critically missing or endangered, a district unit is dispatched to the location.

Members of the NOPD Special Victims Division (SVD) are then notified where they will quickly assess the information to determine if the criteria is met for an Amber or Silver Alert.

• If so, contact is made with the Louisiana State Police to initiate the National Alert System.
• If not, SVD Members will initiate protocols for Bryan's Call:
  1. Make contact with a NOPD Public Information Officer to initiate a NOLA Ready Alert.
  2. The NOPD Public Information Officer will send out a press release to all local media and social media outlets containing the missing person 's picture, critical information, and who to contact.
  3. The NOPD Public Information Officer then makes direct contact with the Public Information Officer from New Orleans Office of Coordination and Emergency Management (NOCEM) to request a Nola Ready Alert.
  4. NOCEM will then send out telephone and email alerts with critical information on the missing person, last location, description, and other pertinent information vis NOLA Ready System.
  5. SVD Members will then make contact with the New Orleans Police Justice & Foundation (NOPJF) where the picture and information of the missing person will be displayed on electronic billboards across the metropolitan area .
  6.  The NOPJF also send push notifications to anyone within the area that has a Ring doorbell camera,
  7. Additionally, when necessary, members of the SVD will also contact the Louisiana State Police to active the Child Recovery and Endangered Persons Team, or C.R.E.S.T ( as in Bryan's case).
  8. CREST is a multi-agency response team headed by the Louisiana State Police that pulls in additional law enforcement agencies and resources ( drones, helicopters, boats, search and research dogs, etc..)

What can the public do to help?

• Make sure you are signed up to receive Nola Ready alerts by texting NOLAREADY (all one word) to 77295.
• If you see something, say something.
• Check your home surveillance cameras if you receive an alert in your neighborhood.
• Call 911 if you see the endangered person immediately.

Crimestoppers GNO
(504) 822-1111 or www.crimestoppersgno.org

Orleans Parish Communications District
Outside of Orleans Parish (504) 821-2222 or, 911 for emergencies

Data about the program

View the Bryan's Call Dashboard