A robocall message delivered by Irvington Township School Superintendent to selected residents in the township has parents seeking additional information.
The Tuesday afternoon call from Dr. Neely Hackett began urging parents of an 'extremely' important announcement and telling call receivers that police have made an arrest in an attempted child "luring" that reportedly occurred in the township on 'Tuesday' in the vicinity of one the schools.
Superintendent Hackett's message did not include what school or the age level of the targeted child/children prompting parents to believe that the incident was an attempted abduction rather a luring.
According to parents, the superintendent did not state the time the incident occurred or if any other suspects are sought for the police investigation.
Superintendent Hackett closed her robocalled message by urging parents to remind their "children" not to speak to strangers and to immediately report child lurings/abductions to staff, police, or parents.
It is not immediately clear if the child victim, in this case, ever spoke to the arrested suspect or if any physical contact was ever made.
Irvington Police officials have not put out an official statement regarding the Superintendent's statement.
Superintendent's Hackett's claim of an arrest is subject to **N.J.S.A.47:1A-3.b** of the Open Public Records Act and the common law right of access that states "if an arrest has been made, information as to the defendant's name, age, residence, occupation, marital status and similar background information and, the identity of the complaining party and text of charges unless the release of such information is contrary to existing law.
Irvington authorities have not responded to general requests for public information in several years but has delivered hundreds of police incident reports that were requested by our legal department, for residents on our platform, through the Open Public Records Act since January 2016.
The attempted abduction incident remains under investigation.