BILL ANALYSIS
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|SENATE RULES COMMITTEE | AB 1022|
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THIRD READING
Bill No: AB 1022
Author: Nava (D) and Cook (R)
Amended: 8/20/10 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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Senate Floor Amendments of 8/20/10 revise a provision of
the bill concerning the duties of a director in the
Department of Justice responsible for coordinating
California's response to missing persons.
ANALYSIS : Existing law provides that the Attorney
General shall establish and maintain the Violent Crime
Information Center 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.
Existing law provides that the Attorney General shall
establish the Missing and Exploited Children's Recovery
Network which shall consist of an automated computerized
system that shall have the capability to electronically
transmit information pertaining to missing children to all
state and local law enforcement agencies, as specified.
This bill provides that within the Department of Justice
there shall be a director responsible for coordinating
California's response to missing persons. The bill
establishes this 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, maintaining records, and
making the Commission on Peace Officer Standards Training
Guidelines for Handling Missing Persons Investigations
document available to law enforcement agencies upon
request.
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
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2012-13 Fund
New DOJ position up to $112 up to
$208 up to $ General
This bill requires the Department of Justice to establish a
new director position. This director would be responsible
for coordinating California's response to 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.
The Department of Justice 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
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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;
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." ?
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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
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 8/22/10 Senate Floor Analyses
SUPPORT/OPPOSITION: SEE ABOVE
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