Runaway Children
Legislation | Links | Press Releases
When a child goes missing, it is imperative that everyone – parents, communities, and law enforcement – work together to find and protect him or her. For that reason, federal law already requires that every reported runaway be listed as a “missing person” in the National Crime Information Center database. Unfortunately, compliance with this law is not perfect: a recent series in the New York Times revealed that more than 15% of reported runaways are not entered in the NCIC database.
The NCIC database can be accessed by virtually every federal, state, and local law enforcement officer, allowing them to share information and work together. When a missing child is not entered in the database, he or she is much less likely to be found: law enforcement officers simply don’t know there’s anyone to look for! I have introduced legislation that will help find and protect runaway children by requiring law enforcement agencies to:
- Certify that their agency is complying with federal law by entering all missing children into the NCIC database, and
- Provide the parents/guardians of missing children direct access to resources including the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children and the National Runaway Switchboard.
Legislation
07/28/2011 - H.R. 2688, Runaway Reporting Improvement Act of 2011 [112th Congress]
11/25/09 - H.R. 4129, Runaway Reporting Improvement Act of 2009 [111th Congress]
Links
Recession Drives Surge in Youth Runaways, The New York Times, 10/25/09
For Runaways, Sex Buys Survival, The New York Times, 10/26/09
More on Runaway Children
WASHINGTON, DC – Reps. Carolyn B. Maloney (D-NY) and Ted Poe (R-TX) yesterday introduced the “Runaway Reporting Improvement Act,” H.R. 3427, which would strengthen the nation’s runaway reporting system and provide families with resources to find missing children. Each year an estimated 1.6 million children run away from home and 16 percent of them are never entered into the national database used to help police find them.
New York, NY – Today at City Hall, U.S. Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-Manhattan, Queens) announced the introduction of H.R. 2759, the Business Transparency on Trafficking & Slavery Act, which would require companies to disclose any measures taken to identify and address instances of human trafficking, slavery, and child labor in their supply chains.