BILL ANALYSIS
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1022
Author: Nava (D) and Cook (R)
Amended: 7/15/10 in Senate
Vote: 21
PRIOR VOTES NOT RELEVANT
SENATE PUBLIC SAFETY COMMITTEE : 7-0, 06/22/10
AYES: Leno, Cogdill, Cedillo, Hancock, Huff, Steinberg,
Wright
SENATE APPROPRIATIONS COMMITTEE : 11-0, 8/12/10
AYES: Kehoe, Ashburn, Alquist, Corbett, Emmerson, Leno,
Price, Walters, Wolk, Wyland, Yee
SUBJECT : Missing children
SOURCE : More Kids
DIGEST : This bill establishes, within the Department of
Justice, a director position for the purposes of assisting
law enforcement agencies with the timely search and
recovery of at-risk abducted children, maintaining
up-to-date knowledge and expertise of those protocols, best
practices, and technologies that are most effective for
recovering missing children, maintaining relationships with
law enforcement agencies and other entities responsible for
the investigation of missing persons, and providing
oversight and maintenance of the state's Child Abduction
First Responder List.
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ANALYSIS : This bill provides that there shall be, within
the Department of Justice, a director responsible for
coordinating California's response to missing persons.
This position is hereby established for all of the
following purposes:
1.To assist law enforcement agencies, at their request,
with the timely search and recovery of at-risk abducted
children.
2.To maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise of those
protocols, best practices, and technologies that are most
effective for recovering missing children in a timely
manner.
3.To maintain relationships with federal, state, and local
law enforcement agencies and other entities responsible
for the investigation of missing persons in the state.
4.To provide oversight and maintenance of the state's Child
Abduction First Responder List.
This bill provides that the director shall utilize existing
resources and expertise within the Attorney General's
office to the maximum extent possible to accomplish the
purposes outlined in this bill.
FISCAL EFFECT : Appropriation: No Fiscal Com.: Yes
Local: No
According to the Senate Appropriations Committee:
Fiscal Impact (in thousands)
Major Provisions 2010-11 2011-12
2012-13 Fund
New DOJ position up to $112 up to
$208 up to $ General
This bill requires the Department of Justice (DOJ) to
establish a new director position. This director would be
responsible for coordinating California's response to
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missing persons. The director would assist law enforcement
agencies with the search and recovery of at-risk abducted
children, maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise of
protocols, practices, and technologies for recovering
missing children in a timely manner.
DOJ estimates that creating and filling this position will
incur a cost to the Division of California Justice
Information Services of $112,000 in 2010-11 and $208,000
ongoing. This bill directs DOJ to utilize existing
resources to the maximum extent possible to create and fund
this position. Any resources that are used to pay a new
director, in a newly-established, would likely trade off
with resources other DOJ activities. DOJ may be able to
shift some additional resources to this position, but those
will likely be minor.
SUPPORT : (Verified 8/16/10)
More Kids (source)
Crime Victims United of California
ARGUMENTS IN SUPPORT : According to the author's office:
Every year an estimated 800,000 children are reported
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;"
45 were abducted by strangers;
1,210 went missing at the hands of a family member;
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349 were abducted under suspicious circumstances; and
3,244 went missing under unknown circumstances.
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.
California's AMBER Alert system was established on
July 24, 2003 (AB 415, Runner, 2002). The criteria
necessary for the activation of an AMBER Alert in
California is very specific. In fact, only .04% of
all missing children qualify for an AMBER Alert.
Criteria include the following and must all be met:
Local law enforcement belief that an abduction
occurred;
Child must be 17 years of age or younger;
Child must be at risk of serious bodily harm or death;
Sufficient descriptive information about the child
and/or abductor must exist to disseminate to the
public;
Since 2002, there were a total of 157 AMBER Alert
Activations representing 205 victims abducted - all of
whom were safely recovered or accounted for (it is
assumed that unrecovered children are safe with
relatives in a country without an extradition policy).
The California Child Abduction Task Force, currently
under the jurisdiction of the California Emergency
Management Agency (CalEMA), has a mission to "reduce
the risk and incidence of child abduction, and to
increase the effectiveness of a multi-disciplinary
response by enhancing skills, knowledge, and awareness
of child abduction." ?
Child Abduction Response Teams (CARTs) are beginning
to take shape nationwide to respond quickly to
incidents of missing and abducted children. CARTs
consist of law enforcement investigators, AMBER Alert
coordinators, policy makers, search and rescue
professionals, crime intelligence analysts, victim
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service providers, and other inter-agency resources.
Teams exist within California in the Los Angeles and
San Diego areas. While CART Teams are proving to be
effective multijurisdictional resources, their
establishment across California may prove difficult
with the state's ongoing $20 billion budget crises.
The creation of one or two similar teams on a
statewide level may prove to be a more cost-effective
method by which to rapidly recover missing children.
With this in mind, AB 1022 establishes the California
Missing Child Rapid Response Team within the Attorney
General's Office to assist law enforcement agencies,
at the request of said agencies, with the timely
search and recovery of at-risk abducted children.
Under the measure, the Team will be required to
maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise of
protocols, best practices and technologies that are
most effective for recovering missing children in a
timely manner. AB 1022 seeks for the Team to utilize
existing resources and expertise within the Attorney
General's office to the extent possible.
RJG:nl 8/16/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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