BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 34|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 34
Author: Nava (D) and Cook (R), et al
Amended: 8/19/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 6/22/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE FLOOR : Vote of 9/9/09 is not relevant
ASSEMBLY FLOOR : Vote of 9/9/09 is not relevant
SUBJECT : Reports of missing persons: law enforcement
information
sharing
SOURCE : More Kids
DIGEST : NOTE: The provisions of this bill were deleted
on the Senate Floor on May 18, 2010.
This bill improves the states mechanisms for facilitating
swift searches for missing persons by requiring (1) the
state's Violent Crime Information Center (VCIC) to release
information regarding missing or unidentified persons to
the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, and
(2 ) local law enforcement to submit reports of missing
persons under the age of 21 or persons believed to be at
risk to the Department of Justice for inclusion in the
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VCIC and the National Crime Information Center databases
within two hours, instead of the current four hours, after
the receipt of the report, as specified.
Senate Floor Amendments of 8/19/10 revise the bill's
provisions with respect to sharing information about
missing persons.
ANALYSIS : Current law requires the Attorney General (AG)
to "establish and maintain the VCIC to assist in the
identification and the apprehension of persons responsible
for specific violent crimes and for the disappearance and
exploitation of persons, particularly children and
dependent adults. The center shall establish and maintain
programs which include, but are not limited to, all of the
following: (1) developing violent offender profiles, (2)
assisting local law enforcement agencies and county
district attorneys (DA) by providing investigative
information on persons responsible for specific violent
crimes and missing person cases, (3) providing physical
description information and photographs, if available, of
missing persons to county DAs, nonprofit missing persons
organizations, and schools, and (4) providing statistics on
missing dependent adults and on missing children,
including, as may be applicable, family abductions,
nonfamily abductions, voluntary missing, and lost children
or lost dependent adults." (Penal Code Section 14200.)
Current law further requires the Attorney General (AG) to
establish within the center and maintain "an online,
automated computer system designed to effect an immediate
law enforcement response to reports of missing persons,"
and requires the AG to make information available to law
enforcement agencies regarding active files maintained
pursuant to these provisions, as specified. (Penal Code
Section 14201.)
This bill requires the center to "release specific
information, determined by the Department of Justice (DOJ),
contained in law enforcement reports regarding missing or
unidentified persons to the National Missing and
Unidentified Persons System to assist in the search for the
missing person or persons."
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Current law requires local law enforcement to "accept any
report, including any telephonic report, of a missing
person, including runaways, without delay and shall give
priority to the handling of these reports over the handling
of reports relating to crimes involving property. In cases
where the person making a report of a missing person or
runaway, contacts, including by telephone, the California
Highway Patrol (CHP), the CHP may take the report, and
shall immediately advise the person making the report of
the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's
department having jurisdiction of the residence address of
the missing person and of the name and telephone number of
the police or sheriff's department having jurisdiction of
the place where the person was last seen. In cases of
reports involving missing persons, including, but not
limited to, runaways, the local police or sheriff's
department shall immediately take the report and make an
assessment of reasonable steps to be taken to locate the
person. If the missing person is under 16 years of age, or
there is evidence that the person is at risk, the
department shall broadcast a "Be On the Look-Out" bulletin,
without delay, within its jurisdiction." (Penal Code
Section 14205(a).)
Current law further provides that if "the person reported
missing is under 16 years of age, or if there is evidence
that the person is at risk, the local police, sheriff's
department, or the CHP shall submit the report to the AG's
office within four hours after accepting the report. After
the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System
online missing person registry becomes operational, the
reports shall be submitted, within four hours after
accepting the report, to the AG's office through the use of
the California Telecommunications System." (Penal Code
Section 14205(b).)
This bill revises this subdivision to provide that if the
person reported missing is under 21 years of age, or if
there is evidence that the person is at risk, the law
enforcement agency receiving the report shall, within two
hours after the receipt of the report, transmit the report
to the DOJ for inclusion in the VCIC and the NCIC
databases.
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The center is required to make accessible to the National
Missing and Unidentified Persons System, specific
information authorized for dissemination and as determined
appropriate by the center that is contained in law
enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified
persons. The information shall be accessible in a manner
and format approved by the center and shall be used to
assist in the search for the missing person or persons.
The center shall not permit the transmission or sharing of
information or portions of information, to the National
Missing and Unidentified Persons System unless the
reporting agency, as specified in Section 14205, or the
reporting party, with respect to the information submitted
to the center, submits authorization to the center to
transmit or share that information.
Missing Children Response Package . This bill is one of a
four-bill package introduced by More Kids as part of their
2010 legislative platform. The others are: AB 33 (Nava &
Cook) Peace Officers Missing Child Training Act; AB 589
(Cook & Nava) Sexual Predator Identification Act, and AB
1022 (Nava & Cook) Missing Child Rapid Response Act.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
DOJ information $167 $932 $584 General
Transmission
Ongoing annual costs of $335beginning in 2013/14
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/19/10)
More Kids (source)
Crime Victims United of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : The author's office state in part,
"Every year an estimated 800,000 children are reported
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missing, more than 105,000 in California alone. This
equates to more than 2,000 children each day. A large
proportion of those are abducted by non-family members
under suspicious or unknown circumstances. A number of
high-profile missing children cases within the last decade
have brought to light the need to bring California's laws
and processes for missing person response and recovery in
the 21st century. In 2009 in California, 105,171 children
were reported missing, according to the Department of
Justice. Of that number:
47,407 were male;
57,764 were female;
100,043 were determined to be runaways;
268 were reported "lost;"
12 went missing as a result of catastrophe;
45 were abducted by strangers;
1,210 went missing at the hands of a family member;
349 were abducted under suspicious circumstances; and
3,244 went missing under unknown circumstances.
"In 1983, federal law was amended to require law
enforcement agencies to notify the National Crime
Information Center (NCIC) of missing children within 4
hours of a report being filed.
"According to a 1997 study, Case Management for Missing
Children Homicide Investigation , the murder of an abducted
child is a rare event?yet 76.2% of abducted children who
are murdered are dead within three hours of the abduction.
"House Resolution 4472, the Adam Walsh Child Protection and
Safety Act, signed into law in 2006 by President George W.
Bush, provided additional missing children funds to states
that implemented a number of new mandates - one of which
was an updated, 2 hour NCIC notification timeframe. To
date, only Ohio has complied with the Act due to
complexities in meeting mandates.
"In 2008, Florida separately acted, as part of the Jennifer
Kesse and Tiffany Sessions Missing Person Act to require a
2 hour NCIC notification timeframe for state law
enforcement agencies. AB 34 replicates this action by
requiring that California's local law enforcement agencies
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report information to NCIC and the California Violent Crime
Information Center . . in a similar timeframe.
"Under federal law, information on missing persons may also
be disclosed to the National Center for Missing and
Exploited Children (NCMEC), a 501 (c)(3) nonprofit
organization. In recent years, however, a number of
nonprofit organizations have been created, including Klaas
Kids, for purposes of raising awareness about missing
children, educating parents and families about safe child
practices (i.e. "Stranger Danger"), and for assisting law
enforcement agencies in their searches for the missing.
"Concurrently, local governments across California have
faced nearly ten years of budget reductions as the state
grapples with ongoing fiscal crises. Consequently, many
communities have seen cutbacks in the numbers of their
front line police officers. With this in mind, AB 34
provides that the CVIC shall release information contained
in missing persons reports to specified (national
entities), that may assist in the search for said missing
person(s)."
RJG:do 8/19/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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