a parental checklist to assist police in locating a missing child should include what instructions?

Topic:
CRIME; JUVENILES; INVESTIGATION; Law ENFORCEMENT OFFICERS;
Location:
CRIME AND CRIMINALS; POLICE;

January 9, 2007		2007-R-0037
State POLICE MISSING PERSONS PROTOCOL
Past: Veronica Rose, Master Analyst

Yous asked if (ane) the Partitioning of State Police has a policy for investigating reports of missing persons, (2) state police officers are trained to behave such investigations, (three) local police force must follow the State Law policy, and (iv) local police must notify State Police of missing persons.

SUMMARY

The Country Police policy on missing persons is outlined in the division ' s administrative and operations manual. The policy prescribes investigative and search actions that law officers must take in response to reports of missing children and adults. All land police officers are trained in handling missing person investigations, according to the State Police legislative liaison.

In that location is no requirement for local police departments to follow State Law policy and no uniform policy that local constabulary must follow. Some (east.grand., Cromwell and Hartford) have written policies; others (e.g., West Hartford) accept unwritten policies.

State police coverage of missing persons is limited. It requires just that local police (1) receiving a report of a missing child under age 15 immediately accept the written report and notify all on-duty police and other appropriate law enforcement agencies and (two) submit reports of all missing children nether age 18 to the Connecticut State Police Missing Child Information Clearinghouse. The law does not, for example, prescribe (1) information that missing person complaints must comprise, (2) criteria for evaluating and responding to complaints, (3) investigative or search techniques officers must employ, or (4) steps officers must follow when dealing with complaints. And information technology does not address missing adults.

Federal law requires police to report each case of a missing child nether age 21 reported to them to the National Law-breaking Data Heart (NCIC). And it prohibits police from establishing or maintaining a waiting period before accepting a missing child or unidentified person study. Its scope, similar land police, is express.

Several local police officials and the State Police take indicated that they handle missing person complaints on a case-by-example footing, basing the promptness of their response and the intensity of the investigation on the circumstances of the specific case. For instance, the response to a report of a missing two-year old will differ from the response to a report of a xiv-year one-time reported missing on 3 occasions and located each time at a friend ' s flat in Westward Hartford. Similarly, the response to a written report of a missing person who suffers from Alzheimer volition be different from the response to a report most a spouse reported missing on several occasions and located each time gambling at the casino. Also, a complaint must contain enough descriptive information nearly the missing person to form the basis of an investigation and search. None of the policies we reviewed includes a waiting menses for initiating an investigation or search.

The National Eye on Missing and Exploited Children (NMCEC) has issued guidelines for dealing with missing children. The State Police force policy parallels these guidelines.

State POLICE POLICY

Land Police policy calls for the officer assigned to a written report of whatsoever missing person (including children, juvenile, and adults) to (1) appraise the situation and "immediately" consummate an initial study (Grade DPS-159-C) that includes a concrete description and personal history of the missing person, (2) disseminate this information "every bit shortly every bit possible," (3) determine an appropriate initial search effort based on the specific circumstances of the state of affairs, and (four) search the person ' southward residence and terminal known location.

The policy states that the responding trooper should consider a greater initial investigation or search in the instance of a missing child or an elderly or other at-chance person. If the child is under age 16, the trooper must immediately notify the troop desk. The troop desk must warning all on-duty personnel and provide a description of the child, his concluding known location, and other pertinent information. The responding trooper must complete a local area search and report on this investigation. The duty supervisor must notify the troop commander if it appears that initial efforts or a follow-up investigation volition require more resources than the troop tin can provide.

Law may actuate an AMBER alert when it is strongly suspected or confirmed that a child is abducted and considered endangered. Connecticut ' due south Amber Program is a cooperative effort among the Country Police, the Connecticut Association of Police force Chiefs, local constabulary, and the Connecticut Broadcasters Association. It calls for broadcasters immediately to interrupt their programming to circulate information over the Emergency Alert System about a non-family unit child abduction. The program does not embrace runaway children or children taken during custody disputes.

For the plan to exist activated, (1) the child must be under age 18 (but older children may be considered on a case-past-case basis), (two) police enforcement officials must determine the child is in danger of serious bodily harm or death, and (3) they must accept enough descriptive information to believe that a broadcast will help. If the situation meets these criteria, a local police official or trooper contacts the State Police message center, where staff records an audio alert with the data. This emergency message is sent to two primary radio and television stations, each of which airs an emergency tone and then either interrupts programming or scrolls the message at the bottom of the screen. Other media option upwardly the bulletin from these stations.

The policy also outlines additional procedures for investigating missing person complaints. These include procedures for entering missing person information in the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) missing person file and the Connecticut On-Line Law Enforcement Advice Teleprocessing system (COLLECT).

LOCAL POLICIES

In that location is no requirement for local law to follow Land Police policy on missing persons. And in that location is no uniform statewide policy that departments follow. Some departments, like Due west Hartford, have unwritten policies; others, like Cromwell, Enfield, Hartford, and the Country Capitol Police have written policies. Based on anecdotal information, near departments have written policies.

The policies typically address:

ane. the blazon of information that officers taking missing person complaints must collect (including the missing person ' s proper name, age, health, mental chapters, and risk factor);

2. procedures for collecting, evaluating, and disseminating the information internally and to the State Police force, where required;

iii. investigative and search action officers must take and techniques they must employ;

4. the responsibilities of various officials (including who is responsible for entering data in the state or national database, where required, and who coordinates the investigation and search); and

v. criteria for activating an AMBER Alert and entering the missing person information in NCIC and COLLECT.

None of the three policies we reviewed (Cromwell, Hartford, and the State Police) has a waiting catamenia for initiating a missing person investigation. But in the case of adult missing persons "where the absence appears to be voluntary, Hartford ' s policy states that officials should determine how long the person has been missing and "the complainant should be encouraged to call Tele-serve back after a reasonable period of time has elapsed." "Reasonable period of time", nether the policy, is a function of age and life circumstances.

Some departments (due east.g., Hartford) accept a unit specifically for handling complaints and investigations involving missing persons.

Copies of the policies from Cromwell, Hartford, and the State Capitol Police are attached.

CONNECTICUT Police force

Local police departments receiving a report of a missing kid nether age 15 must immediately accept the report and notify all on-duty police officers and other appropriate law enforcement agencies (CGS � 7-282c).

Local departments must submit reports of all missing children nether age 18 to the Connecticut State Police Missing Child Information Clearinghouse. Parents may also notify the clearinghouse once they written report to local police. The clearinghouse is the state ' s central repository of information on missing children and others, and the data it collects is to be used to help locate missing children. Amid its other statutorily divers responsibilities, the clearinghouse investigates reports of missing children (in response to local requests) and cooperates with other law enforcement agencies ' investigations, tries to assure that its data is accurate and complete, and has established an intrastate system for communicating information on missing children (CGS � 29-1e).

Inside available resource, the clearinghouse may collect, process, maintain, and disseminate information to help locate missing persons other than children (CGS � 29-1f).

FEDERAL LAW

The National Kid Search Assist Act prohibits federal, state, or local law enforcement agencies from establishing or observing a waiting period earlier accepting a missing child example. It also mandates these agencies to:

1. enter, without delay, reports of missing children under age 21 into the state police force enforcement organization and NCIC and brand it bachelor to the land ' s Missing Children Information Clearinghouse or other agency designated to get such reports,

2. update identifying information on each case in NCIC within 60 days,

3. pursue proper investigative and search action, and

4. maintain a close liaison with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (NCMEC) for the substitution of information and technical help in advisable cases (42 USC �� 5779 and 5780).

NATIONAL GUIDELINES

NCMEC ' s book, Missing and Abducted Children: A Law Enforcement Guide to Case Investigation and Program Management, 1994) contains guidelines for police activeness in cases of missing and runaway children. It states that "police enforcement agencies having conspicuously defined policies and procedures concerning all aspects of their missing child response are considered to be conducting aggressive investigations and securing successful instance closures." Comprehensive policies, it asserts, should describe the roles and responsibilities of officers or units assigned to specific investigative functions and should include directions apropos deportment to be taken when a report is received.

The guidelines divide the written report and investigation process into iv components: call intake, first response, investigation, and supervision and prescribe actions for each. They suggest that (1) the person receiving the call should showtime inform the caller that an officer is beingness dispatched to the scene; (2) the constabulary agency should have standard, pre-determined questions to inquire and should relay the responses to the responding officer; (3) the agency should possess the ability to apace check its ain records for prior reports on the child; and (4) the dispatcher should notify all on-duty units of the written report and provide them will all available information.

The guidelines recommend that a patrol officer should respond promptly to the report past going directly to the kid ' s home. Checking expanse parks and playgrounds is better left to other units in the area. At the scene, the officer must verify that the kid is missing (sometimes the child volition have left a message on an answering machines explaining his whereabouts), interview the parents and others nowadays to obtain a detailed description of the child and the circumstances of the disappearance, try to make up one's mind how far the kid could accept traveled since terminal seen, and determine the nature of the gamble to the child given his age and developmental level. In the example of a possible runaway, the officer should notice out whether he or she has run away before and should check with friends. All interviews should be conducted separately. The officeholder should treat the area as a crime scene, obtain permission to search the abode, evaluate the contents of the child ' s room, and make that evidence is protected.

Later on the initial call and response, the agency should assign an investigator to the case. After a conference from the responding officeholder, the investigator should begin the case evaluation by checking police force records for relevant information and by reviewing the information already collected. Based on this, he develops an investigatory plan and determines whatever additional or specialized resource needed. In the case of a runaway, the officer should beginning focus on the child ' s family, lifestyle, and friends, interviewing all of them equally well as school personnel. He should look for recent changes in personality, behavior, appearance, and friends and should notice out whether the child is alcohol or drug-dependent. Friends are

specially of import subjects, since they often know more about the delinquent than the parents, and some studies have shown that runaways sought help from friends in 60% of cases studied. The investigator should besides bank check child protective service records.

The guidelines recognize that law enforcement agencies must set priorities in determining which cases require intensive investigation. They provide a checklist of circumstances indicating that a child is an "endangered delinquent" and state that "strenuous efforts to locate the child should be immediately put into result." These circumstances include the missing youth (1) is under age thirteen or mentally incapacitated, (2) is drug- or alcohol-dependent, (iii) was missing for more 24 hours before the constabulary were notified, or (4) is believed to be in a life-threatening situation or accompanied by adults who could endanger his welfare.

POLICE Preparation COUNCIL

By law, the Law Officers Standard and Preparation Council must establish compatible minimum education and training standards for employment as a police officer. The council provides four hours of grooming on missing persons. It provides additional training in this surface area as part of other units in the curriculum (eastward.1000., criminal investigations and COLLECT).

VR:ts

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Source: https://www.cga.ct.gov/2007/rpt/2007-R-0037.htm