Edmonton police issued an Amber Alert for a missing teen Friday afternoon, but some have expressed their concern over an uncommon term that was used to describe the victim.

In a media release, EPS said the young girl’s race was “mulatto,” a term used in the past to describe people of mixed white and black ancestry.

Shama Rangwala, an English instructor at the University of Alberta, said she was shocked to see the word being used in 2018. She argued that the word should be considered as a racist term.

“Mulatto is not a term we use anymore. It is a term that came from slavery times. The etymology, most lexicographers agree, comes from the term 'mule' so it's deliberately dehumanizing,” Rangwala explained.

Insp. Ray Akbar of the Edmonton Police Service said the Amber Alert included the term that was provided to them by the witnesses.

“The information we received from the witnesses provided that description of the suspect, and the victim herself, and these were peers of the victim, and that was some information that was conveyed to us under some very exigent circumstances. It was time sensitive to get that information out to the Amber Alert and that's why that term was used,” said Akbar.

Rangwala believed that the use of the term in the alert was also unclear to many.

“I don’t think a lot of people know the term so the goal is clarity. I would’ve used something like mixed race,” said Rangwala. “Even just describing her skin tone: medium brown, something like that is easy for people to understand.”

In an email statement sent to CTV News, Edmonton Police Service spokeswoman Patrycja Mokrzan apologized for the remarks that were used in the alert.

“Upon review of the wording post incident, the EPS regrets that it has offended anyone in the community and it wasn’t our intent in any way to be culturally insensitive or disrespectful. We would like to reassure everyone that we have reviewed the unfiltered description  through our Equity Diversity & Human Rights Section and moving forward, the EPS will ensure that emergency messaging will reflect what we foster - respect and dignity for all.”

The Amber Alert was sent across Edmonton and surrounding regions, and was later lifted after the teenager and the alleged abductor were found.