Bill Text: NY A08347 | 2021-2022 | General Assembly | Amended
Bill Title: Establishes a task force on missing women and girls who are black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC) to develop policy changes that will work to address the lack of care and concern for missing and murdered BIPOC women and girls with New York state governmental agencies.
Spectrum: Partisan Bill (Democrat 10-0)
Status: (Introduced - Dead) 2022-05-13 - print number 8347a [A08347 Detail]
Download: New_York-2021-A08347-Amended.html
STATE OF NEW YORK ________________________________________________________________________ 8347--A 2021-2022 Regular Sessions IN ASSEMBLY October 20, 2021 ___________ Introduced by M. of A. REYES, SIMON, ANDERSON, EPSTEIN, CARROLL, GONZA- LEZ-ROJAS, FERNANDEZ, GLICK, L. ROSENTHAL -- Multi-Sponsored by -- M. of A. BRAUNSTEIN -- read once and referred to the Committee on Governmental Operations -- recommitted to the Committee on Govern- mental Operations in accordance with Assembly Rule 3, sec. 2 -- committee discharged, bill amended, ordered reprinted as amended and recommitted to said committee AN ACT to establish a task force on missing women and girls who are black, indigenous and people of color; and providing for the repeal of such provisions upon expiration thereof The People of the State of New York, represented in Senate and Assem- bly, do enact as follows: 1 Section 1. Legislative findings and intent. The legislature finds 2 that: 3 a. According to a 2020 report by the Women's Media Center there are 4 64,000-75,000 missing black women and girls across the United States. 5 b. Cases involving black women and girls often do not receive the 6 attention they need and there are often barriers to families reporting a 7 loved one, such as mistrust of police, and racial disparities in how law 8 enforcement treat disappearances. 9 c. The tens of thousands of black women and girls who are missing 10 include abductees, sex trafficking victims, and runaways. Black women 11 and girls exist at the intersection of racism and sexism, and often face 12 worse health, wealth, housing, education, and employment outcomes. 13 d. Black girls comprise over 40% of domestic sex trafficking victims 14 in the United States. 15 e. Law enforcement often categorize missing black girls as runaways 16 and fail to treat their cases with urgency. 17 f. According to a 2020 report by the Sovereign Bodies Institute, a 18 nonprofit, indigenous-led research organization, at least 2,306 missing EXPLANATION--Matter in italics (underscored) is new; matter in brackets [] is old law to be omitted. LBD11613-03-2A. 8347--A 2 1 Native American women and girls have gone missing in the last 40 years 2 in the United States, about 1,800 of whom were killed or vanished. 3 g. Systemic vulnerability and compounding suppressions have resulted 4 in mass amounts of disappeared indigenous peoples, with the National 5 Congress of American Indians finding that an estimated 40% of women who 6 are victims of sex trafficking identify as American Indian, Alaska 7 Native, or First Nations. 8 h. Families of Native American women and girls who have gone missing 9 report a lack of cultural awareness, systemic racism and sexism, and 10 widespread apathy by law enforcement and express frustration that their 11 cases are not pursued. 12 i. There is not comprehensive state or federal data about missing and 13 murdered Native Americans. Advocates argue that poor record keeping, 14 racial misclassification, adverse relationships between tribal govern- 15 ments and outside law enforcement have led to an underreporting of 16 cases. 17 § 2. a. There is hereby established a task force on missing women and 18 girls who are black, indigenous and people of color (BIPOC). Such task 19 force shall be composed of the commissioner of the office of family and 20 children's services, the commissioner of the division of criminal 21 justice services, the superintendent of state police, or the designees 22 of such commissioners and superintendent. Additional members shall be 23 appointed as follows, two shall be appointed by the temporary president 24 of the senate, two shall be appointed by the speaker of the assembly, 25 one shall be appointed by the minority leader of the senate, and one 26 shall be appointed by the minority leader of the assembly. Members shall 27 be representative of the communities experiencing this crisis, including 28 directly impacted individuals, reflect the diversity of New York state, 29 and have experience in cultural competency. 30 b. Task force members shall receive no compensation for their services 31 but shall be reimbursed for actual and necessary expenses incurred in 32 the performance of their duties. 33 c. The task force shall: 34 (i) develop policy changes that will work to address the lack of care 35 and concern for missing and murdered BIPOC women and girls with New York 36 state governmental agencies, including identifying policies to ensure 37 first responders are culturally competent; 38 (ii) advance the knowledge of communities on the severity of BIPOC 39 women and girls who are missing and murdered; 40 (iii) ensure BIPOC communities are educated and trained on the 41 prevention, protection, and protocols relating to missing BIPOC women 42 and girls as it relates to social media; 43 (iv) develop a strategy to collect statistics, demographics, surveys, 44 oral histories, and data analysis; 45 (v) recommend preventive programming and ideas to advance the safety 46 of women and girls, including policies that address the overlapping 47 forms of oppression faced by BIPOC women and girls; 48 (vi) identify major traffic hubs, highways, and resource extraction 49 sites that lead to or are responsible for the facilitation of the abduc- 50 tion of BIPOC women and girls; and 51 (vii) create a state-wide awareness campaign. 52 d. In carrying out the duties of the task force, such task force shall 53 seek public input by holding public hearings in each region of the state 54 and accepting public input in writing. 55 e. On or before two years after the effective date of this act, the 56 task force shall submit to the temporary president of the senate, theA. 8347--A 3 1 speaker of the assembly, the minority leader of the senate and the 2 minority leader of the assembly a report containing its findings and 3 recommendations. Such reports shall be made available to the public. 4 § 3. This act shall take effect on the sixtieth day after it shall 5 have become a law and shall expire and be deemed repealed three years 6 after such date.