 |
ARIZONA STATE SENATE
Fifty-Fourth Legislature, Second Regular Session
DCS; missing children; report
Purpose
Requires the Department of Child Safety (DCS) to provide a monthly confidential report concerning missing children and outlines reporting requirements and report availability.
Background
Created in 2014, DCS's primary purpose is to protect children through investigation, assessment and support for the safety of a child from abuse, neglect and other criminal conduct allegations (A.R.S. § 8-451). In the case of missing children, DCS is involved in aiding the location of an abducted or missing child (DCS: Policy and Procedure Manual Ch. 4 § 08.2).
If DCS receives information during the course of providing services that indicates a child is at risk of serious harm and the child's location is unknown, DCS is required to notify the appropriate law enforcement agency and provide the information required to make the record entry immediately into the Arizona Criminal Justice Information System and the National Crime Information Center missing person databases (A.R.S. § 8-810). This information includes the physical characteristics of the child, date of birth and, if abducted, any information concerning the abductor. If the missing child is located, DCS will confirm that the child's basic needs are immediately met upon their return and inform all necessary parties (DCS: Policy and Procedure Manual Ch. 4 § 08.2).
There is no anticipated fiscal impact to the state General Fund associated with this legislation.
Provisions
1. Requires DCS to provide a monthly confidential report of all missing children to the:
a) Governor;
b) President of the Senate (President);
c) Speaker of the House of Representatives (Speaker); and
d) Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court
2. Requires the report to be sorted by when each child went missing.
3. Requires the report to include:
a) the age of each child at the time the child went missing; and
b) an appropriately redacted detailed description of the circumstances related to the missing status of the child.
4. Allows a member of the Legislature to view the report after providing reasonable notice and making a request to the President or Speaker, as appropriate.
5. Allows the Governor, President, Speaker and Chief Justice of the Arizona Supreme Court to provide written permission to other persons to view the report.
6. Becomes effective on the general effective date.
Prepared by Senate Research
January 21, 2020
JA/SH/kja