BILL ANALYSIS Ó
Senate Appropriations Committee Fiscal Summary
Senator Kevin de León, Chair
SB 1066 (Galgiani) - Missing or unidentified persons.
Amended: April 3, 2014 Policy Vote: Public Safety 6-0
Urgency: No Mandate: Yes
Hearing Date: May 12, 2014 Consultant: Jolie Onodera
This bill meets the criteria for referral to the Suspense File.
Bill Summary: SB 1066 would make numerous amendments to the code
sections relating to missing and unidentified persons, as
specified.
Fiscal Impact:
Significant ongoing costs, potentially state-reimbursable
(General Fund), for coroners and county medical examiners to
report to the Department of Justice (DOJ) on investigations of
death of unidentified persons within 10 days, as specified.
Non-reimbursable costs (Local) for county medical examiners
and other local agencies to follow certain procedures when
conducting an autopsy on an unidentified person, as the
examinations are discretionary (see Staff Comments)
Potentially significant state-reimbursable local costs
(General Fund) for local law enforcement, coroners, and county
medical examiners to submit dental charts, x-rays, and final
reports of investigation to DOJ, as specified, for cases in
which the identity of the body or human remains cannot be
established.
Potentially significant non-reimbursable local costs to police
and sheriffs' departments to broadcast "Be On the Look-Out"
bulletins for a larger population of missing persons up to age
21(currently bulletins are issued for missing persons under 16
years of age) and report electronically to DOJ, as specified.
The DOJ has indicated no new costs to expand its publicly
accessible internet directory to include at-risk missing and
unidentified persons.
Background: Existing law provides for numerous processes and
procedures imposed on various agencies related to the handling
and investigation of missing or unidentified persons. Current
law places requirements on postmortem examinations or autopsies
conducted at the discretion of a coroner, upon an unidentified
SB 1066 (Galgiani)
Page 1
body or human remains, and requires a law enforcement agency
investigating the death of an unidentified person to report the
death to the DOJ within 10 calendar days after the date the body
or human remains were discovered. (GC §§ 27521, 27521.1)
Current law requires local police and sheriffs' departments to
accept reports of missing persons. In the event the missing
person is under 16 years of age, or there is evidence that the
person is at risk, the department is required to broadcast a "Be
On the Lookout" bulletin within its jurisdiction. (PC § 14205)
Existing law requires the DOJ to establish and maintain a
publicly accessible computer internet directory of information
relating to critical missing children, unsolved homicides, and
persons for whom an arrest warrant has been issued, as
specified. (PC § 14201.6)
Proposed Law: This bill makes numerous changes to the code
sections relating to missing and unidentified persons by:
Requiring medical examiners and other agencies responsible for
postmortem exams or autopsies follow certain procedures when
conducting an autopsy on an unidentified body or human
remains.
Requires reports to the Department of Justice (DOJ) be
completed on the DOJ Unidentified Deceased Person Reporting
form, as specified.
Expands requirements relating to the reports to the DOJ by
local law enforcement.
Requires the final report of investigation include any
homicide report, anthropology report, fingerprints,
photographs, and autopsy report.
Expands the DOJ computer internet directory of information to
include at-risk missing persons and unidentified persons.
Expands the situations requiring a "Be On the Lookout"
bulletin for any missing person be issued to persons under 21
years of age, instead of under 15 years.
Requires local law enforcement to electronically report to DOJ
within two hours, as specified.
Provides that the Attorney General's database is the statewide
database for x-rays and would require the AG to forward the
information to the National Crime Information Center.
Makes technical and conforming changes to the code sections
relating to missing and unidentified persons.
SB 1066 (Galgiani)
Page 2
Staff Comments: This bill makes numerous amendments to existing
provisions of law relating to missing and unidentified persons,
several of which impose new or expanded duties on local
agencies:
Sections 6 and 7 - GC §§ 27521 and 27521.1
Existing law pursuant to GC § 27521 provides that a postmortem
exam or autopsy conducted at the discretion of a coroner must
include specified procedures including but not limited to the
taking of all available fingerprints and palm prints, a dental
examination and dental x-rays, the collection of tissue for
future DNA testing, facial photographs, notations of scars, and
retention of the jaws for one year after positive
identification, as specified. Additionally, coroners are
required to submit dental charts and x-rays, as well as a final
report of investigation to the DOJ within specified time frames.
This bill adds medical examiners and other agencies responsible
for postmortem exams and autopsies to the list of entities that
must follow the prescribed procedures, deletes the provisions
related to DOJ reporting.
Existing law pursuant to GC § 27521.1 provides that the law
enforcement agency investigating the death of an unidentified
person shall report the death to DOJ no later than 10 days after
the date the body or human remains were discovered. This bill
adds coroners and medical examiners to the list of agencies that
must comply with this reporting period, and adds the provisions
for DOJ reporting deleted from GC § 27521 noted above to this
section of law.
Staff notes the Commission on State Mandates (CSM) determined,
in September 2003, that the test claim on Postmortem
Examinations: Unidentified Bodies, Human Remains, 00-TC-18
(2003) Chapter 284/2000 is a partially reimbursable mandate for
local law enforcement investigating the death of an unidentified
person to report the death to the DOJ within 10 calendar days of
the date the body or human remains are discovered. The CSM also
found that coroners' tasks undertaken as part of a discretionary
autopsy pursuant to GC § 27521 are not reimbursable (including
taking fingerprints/palm prints, a dental exam, tissue
collection, photographs, and recording observations about the
deceased).
Based on the CSM determination, it is projected that increased
SB 1066 (Galgiani)
Page 3
local agency costs due to amendments to GC § 27521 will be
non-reimbursable, while the changes to GC § 27521.1 to mandate
reporting of the death of an unidentified person to DOJ within
10 days and add the additional DOJ reporting provisions could
potentially be reimbursable by the state. The costs associated
with the additional duties are unknown but could be substantial.
Section 22 - PC §14211 (formerly PC § 14205)
This bill expands the population of persons for whom local
police and sheriffs' departments must broadcast a "Be On the
Lookout" bulletin, without delay, within its jurisdiction.
Currently, bulletins must be issued for a missing person under
16 years of age, or if there is evidence that the person is at
risk. This bill requires local law enforcement to issue
bulletins for missing persons under 21 years of age. By
expanding the population of missing persons for whom local
agencies will be required to issue bulletins, local agencies
could incur additional costs which would be dependent on the
cost to issue such a bulletin and the volume of bulletins issued
for those missing persons between the ages of 16 and 21 who
would not otherwise be considered "at risk."
Existing law requires that in a case where the person reported
missing is under 21 years of age, or is at risk, that the local
law enforcement agency report to DOJ within two hours after
receipt of the report. This bill requires law enforcement
agencies to report electronically within two hours, and that any
information not immediately available for electronic
transmission be provided as a supplement to the DOJ.
While the costs to local agencies associated with these new
duties could increase local costs substantially, these costs are
estimated to be non-reimbursable by the state, as the
requirements imposed under the section of law are not operative
if the governing body of the local agency adopts a resolution
making those requirements inoperative.
Sections 11-21 - PC sections renumbered and amended
The amendments to these sections generally reflect technical
changes, such as updated cross-references and renumbering. One
substantive amendment would expand the existing DOJ internet
directory to include at-risk missing and unidentified persons.
The DOJ has indicated no fiscal impact associated with this
expansion.
SB 1066 (Galgiani)
Page 4
Recommended Amendments: To address potential costs, staff
recommends amending the bill to retain the existing language of
GC § 27521 (the provisions of which the CSM statement of
decision 00-TC-18 indicated do not constitute a reimbursable
state-mandated program), and amend only to add medical examiners
and local agencies, in lieu of adding the new provisions to GC §
27521.1, which the CSM has determined do constitute a
reimbursable state mandate.