Bill Text: MS SB2287 | 2016 | Regular Session | Engrossed

---

Bill Title: Missing-child reports; require policy adoption.

Sponsorship: Partisan Bill (Democrat 2)

Status: (Failed) 2016-03-22 - Died In Committee [SB2287 Detail]

Download: Mississippi-2016-SB2287-Engrossed.html

---

MISSISSIPPI LEGISLATURE

2016 Regular Session

To: Judiciary, Division B

By: Senator(s) Bryan, Jackson (11th)

Senate Bill 2287

(As Passed the Senate)

AN ACT TO CREATE NEW SECTION 45-1-49, MISSISSIPPI CODE OF 1972, TO REQUIRE ALL MISSISSIPPI LAW ENFORCEMENT AGENCIES TO ADOPT POLICIES FOR MISSING-CHILD REPORTS THAT CONFORM TO FEDERAL LAW; AND FOR RELATED PURPOSES.

     BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF MISSISSIPPI:

     SECTION 1.  The following shall be codified as Section 45-1-49, Mississippi Code of 1972:

     45-1-49.  Missing-child reports; duties of law enforcement.  (1)  Each state, county and local law enforcement agency in this state must adopt written policies that specify the procedures to be used to investigate reports of missing children.  A policy must ensure that cases involving missing children are investigated promptly using appropriate resources and be in compliance with the requirements of this section and the requirements of 42 USCA Section 5779 and 5780.  The policies must include:

          (a)  Procedures for accepting and filing missing-child reports;

          (b)  Procedures for initiating, maintaining, closing or referring a missing-child investigation;

          (c)  Procedures for the prompt and open transfer of information where multiple jurisdictions and agencies are involved in the investigation; and

          (d)  Standards for maintaining and clearing data concerning a missing child that is stored in the National Crime Information Center.  The standards must require, at a minimum, a monthly review of each case and a determination of whether the case should be maintained in the database.

     (2)  A law enforcement agency shall not adopt rules, regulations or policies that prohibit or discourage the filing of a report or the taking of any action on a report that a child is a missing child or that a child is believed to be a missing child.  For purposes of this section and in compliance with federal law, a runaway child is a missing child and shall not be excluded as such based solely on the fact the child is voluntarily away from the child's normal place of residence.

     (3)  A law enforcement agency shall not establish a mandatory waiting period before accepting a missing-child report and beginning an investigation to locate a missing child.

     (4)  An entry concerning a missing child may not be removed from the National Crime Information Center database based solely on the age of the missing child.

     (5)  Upon receiving a report that a child is missing, the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction must immediately:

          (a)  File a report or cause a report to be filed in the county or municipality where the child resides or in which the child was last seen or both.  Nothing in this subsection precludes a law enforcement agency from accepting a missing-child report when jurisdiction cannot be determined;

          (b)  Institute or assist with appropriate search and investigative procedures;

          (c)  Inform all on-duty law enforcement officers within the agency of the missing-child report; and

          (d)  Transmit the report for inclusion in the National Crime Information Center database within the time frame required by federal law.  Law enforcement agencies having the duty to enter the missing-child report into the National Crime Information Center database must provide any information required by the National Crime Information Center to effectuate the purpose of this section.

     (6)  Upon receipt of a missing-child report, the law enforcement agency that entered the report into the National Crime Information Center shall:

          (a)  No later than thirty (30) days after the original entry of the record into the National Crime Information Center computer networks, verify and update the record with any additional information, including, where available, medical and dental records and a photograph of the missing child taken during the previous one hundred eight (180) days;

          (b)  Notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children of each report received relating to a missing foster child.

     (7)  Upon receipt of a missing-child report, the law enforcement agency shall consider whether the circumstances under which the child went missing satisfy the criteria necessary for the issuance of an Amber Alert and, where applicable, shall immediately submit to the Mississippi Bureau of Investigation all required paperwork and documents necessary to request the issuance of an Amber Alert.

     (8)  A person or institution is immune from any liability, civil or criminal, that might otherwise be incurred or imposed for reporting, in good faith, that a child is missing.

     SECTION 2.  This act shall take effect and be in force from and after July 1, 2016.