Florida Senate - 2023                                    SB 1332
       
       
        
       By Senator Martin
       
       
       
       
       
       33-00986A-23                                          20231332__
    1                        A bill to be entitled                      
    2         An act relating to missing persons; amending s.
    3         937.021, F.S.; adding the National Missing and
    4         Unidentified Persons System as a database for reports
    5         of missing children and missing adults; providing an
    6         effective date.
    7          
    8  Be It Enacted by the Legislature of the State of Florida:
    9  
   10         Section 1. Subsections (1), (2), and (4) of section
   11  937.021, Florida Statutes, are amended to read:
   12         937.021 Missing child and missing adult reports.—
   13         (1) Law enforcement agencies in this state shall adopt
   14  written policies that specify the procedures to be used to
   15  investigate reports of missing children and missing adults. The
   16  policies must ensure that cases involving missing children and
   17  adults are investigated promptly using appropriate resources.
   18  The policies must include:
   19         (a) Requirements for accepting missing child and missing
   20  adult reports;
   21         (b) Procedures for initiating, maintaining, closing, or
   22  referring a missing child or missing adult investigation; and
   23         (c) Standards for maintaining and clearing computer data of
   24  information concerning a missing child or missing adult which is
   25  stored in the Florida Crime Information Center, and the National
   26  Crime Information Center, and the National Missing and
   27  Unidentified Persons System. The standards must require, at a
   28  minimum, a monthly review of each case and a determination of
   29  whether the case should be maintained in the database.
   30         (2) An entry concerning a missing child or missing adult
   31  may not be removed from the Florida Crime Information Center, or
   32  the National Crime Information Center, or the National Missing
   33  and Unidentified Persons System databases based solely on the
   34  age of the missing child or missing adult.
   35         (4)(a) Upon the filing of a police report that a child is
   36  missing by the parent or guardian, the Department of Children
   37  and Families, a community-based care provider, or a sheriff’s
   38  office providing investigative services for the department, the
   39  law enforcement agency receiving the report shall immediately
   40  inform all on-duty law enforcement officers of the missing child
   41  report, communicate the report to every other law enforcement
   42  agency having jurisdiction in the county, and within 2 hours
   43  after receipt of the report, transmit the report for inclusion
   44  within the Florida Crime Information Center, and the National
   45  Crime Information Center, and the National Missing and
   46  Unidentified Persons System databases. A law enforcement agency
   47  may not require a reporter to present an order that a child be
   48  taken into custody or any other such order before accepting a
   49  report that a child is missing.
   50         (b) Upon the filing of a credible police report that an
   51  adult is missing, the law enforcement agency receiving the
   52  report shall, within 2 hours after receipt of the report,
   53  transmit the report for inclusion within the Florida Crime
   54  Information Center, and the National Crime Information Center,
   55  and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System
   56  databases.
   57         Section 2. This act shall take effect July 1, 2023.