Missouri SB 1652

HCS/SS/SCS/SB 1652 - This act creates the "Phoenix Alert System" to aid in the identification and location of abducted or missing African American women and girls. The Department of Public Safety shall develop regions to provide the system. The Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls and the Department of Public Safety shall coordinate with law enforcement agencies and public commercial television and radio broadcasters to provide an effective system. In the event that a local law enforcement agency opts not to implement the system and an abduction occurs, the law enforcement agency shall notify the Office who shall notify local media in the region. Regions shall be notified within one hour of receipt of a report of a missing or murdered African American woman or girl. The Phoenix Alert System shall include the Office of Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls, Department of Public Safety, Highway Patrol, Department of Transportation, Department of Health and Senior Services, and Missouri Lottery Commission. Participation of local law enforcement and federally licensed radio and television broadcasters in the Phoenix Alert System is optional. After initial notification, the Department of Public Safety shall update notifications sent under this act whenever new information becomes available at least every month for the first year. Any person who knowingly makes a false report that triggers an alert is guilty of a class A misdemeanor. The Director of the Department of Public Safety shall establish and maintain an office within the Missouri Department of Public Safety dedicated to preventing and ending the targeting of African American women and girls. The Director shall appoint an executive director for the office who is a person closely connected to the African American community and who is highly knowledgeable about criminal investigations. The Director shall hire a qualified executive director no later than December 31, 2026. The duties of the office are described in the act. The office may coordinate with stakeholder groups, which are described in the act. The office shall report on measurable outcomes achieved to meet its statutory duties. Information required to be in the report is described in the act. The report shall be submitted by the office by January fifteenth each year to the chairs and ranking minority members of the legislative committees with primary jurisdiction over public safety. This act creates in the state treasury the "Missing and Murdered African American Women and Girls Fund", which shall consist of moneys appropriated by the General Assembly, gifts, and grants. The office shall issue grants to community-based organizations that provide services designed to prevent or end the targeting of African American women or girls, or to provide assistance to victims of offenses that targeted African American women or girls. The use of these funds is described in the act. On or before February first of each year, the office shall report to the legislative committees of the General Assembly with jurisdiction over public safety on the work of grant recipients, including the description of the number of entities awarded grants, the amount of those grants, and the number of individuals served by the grantees. The office shall have access to corrections data and medical data maintained by an agency and classified as private data on individuals or confidential data on individuals to the extent the data is necessary for the office to perform its duties under this act. TRISTAN BENSON, JR.