Bills Aimed At Better Awareness Of Missing Children Cases Is Stalled In State Senate

crying child

A bill to require all law enforcement agencies in Arizona to notify the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) every time a missing child investigation is opened has passed the House by a 54 to 6 vote but is stalled in the State Senate.

HB2098 is sponsored by Rep. Jennifer Jermaine (D-LD18) and would add one sentence to Arizona Revised Statutes 38-1151 so that all police agencies in the state adhere to a consistent procedure for reporting investigations of a missing child.

The bill is supported by the Arizona Council Of Human Services Providers, the Arizona Chapter of the National Association of Social Workers, and the InterTribal Association of Arizona.

NCMEC is a non-profit clearing house which helps to find missing children, reduce child sexual exploitation, and prevent child victimization. Whether or not a law enforcement agency reports the child’s missing status to NCMEC currently varies from agency to agency.

One issue with the lack of NCMEC reporting is that the Arizona Department of Child Safety (DCS) must notify law enforcement agency if a DCS supervised child is found to be missing.

Information on that child is then reported to a database operated by the Arizona Crime Information Center, but child welfare professionals see mandatory reporting to NCMEC as an important tool because many children do not remain in their original jurisdiction after being abducted or running away.

On Monday, the Arizona Association of Chiefs of Police recorded its opposition to HB2098. The bill still has not been assigned to committee by Senate President Karen Fann. Without committee action before March 24 the bill will die.

Another bill stalled due to lack of committee assignment despite passing the House on a 59 to 0 vote is HB2439, which was introduced by Rep. Gail Griffin (R-LD14) to force DCS to provide better reporting to the Governor and the Legislature about the state’s missing children.

Griffin’s bill would require DCS officials to provide a report every six months containing specific demographic, statistical, and case-related information about every missing child in runaway status. The requirement would be effective for five years.

Ensuring DCS provides such a report is important, said Kathleen Winn, because it helps hold DCS accountable while ensuring legislators are cognizant of any trends.

Winn, the executive director of Project 25/ Valley Against Sex Trafficking, added that introduction of both bills shows the public is becoming more aware of abuses and in turn demanding the legislature undertake steps to fix the problems.

“Rep. Griffin is very knowledgeable about these matters and I would trust her perspective in making this a priority at this time,” Winn said.

Fann would need to have HB2439 taken up by committee before March 24 as well in order to keep the bill alive.