Bill Summary – FastDemocracy

This bill creates the Help Find the Missing Act, which establishes certain requirements to aid in the finding of missing persons, as discussed below. 
DUTIES OF MEDICAL EXAMINER AND THE TBI
       This bill requires every county medical examiner to submit to the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) and to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System standardized copies of fingerprints, partial prints, and personal identifying data of a deceased person whose death is in a classification requiring inquiry by the medical examiner or coroner where the deceased is not identified or the medical examiner or coroner is not satisfied with the decedent's identification. The TBI must promptly make this information available to all law enforcement agencies in the state, and upon request, to law enforcement agencies outside of the state. This bill also requires that a dental examination be performed. Dental examination records will also be submitted to the TBI. 
     The TBI will compare the submitted fingerprints and other personal identifying data with information filed at the TBI in order to identify the deceased. The TBI will then submit the results to the appropriate medical examiner or coroner. If a tentative or positive identification is made, the TBI will also submit the results to the law enforcement agency that submitted the missing person report. 
DENTAL RECORDS

       Under this bill, when anyone makes a missing person report to a law enforcement agency, the agency will be required to request a family member's authorization to release the missing person's dental records to the TBI. If 30 days have passed and the person remains missing, the law enforcement agency will deliver the release to the dentist of the missing person and request delivery of dental records, including x-rays, to the TBI within 10 days. 

     If 30 days have passed and a family member of the missing person cannot be located for authorization, the law enforcement agency can execute a written declaration of an active investigation necessitating the dental records for the exclusive purpose of furthering the investigation. The dentist then must forward all dental records to the TBI for filing, and the law enforcement agency must be notified of this delivery. 
     The TBI will compare dental records received from county medical examiners or coroners to those of missing persons already on file with the TBI and will submit results to the appropriate medical examiner or coroner. In the case a tentative or positive identification is made, the TBI will submit the results to the corresponding law enforcement agency.
NO WAITING PERIOD 

       This bill prohibits law enforcement agencies from establishing or maintaining waiting periods prior to investigating a missing person, and requires immediate entry of such a report into appropriate missing person databases. 

RECORDS
       When a missing person has been found, the sheriff, chief of police, coroner, or medical examiner, or other law enforcement agency, will erase all records with respect to the person and send a report regarding the erased or destroyed records to the TBI.  The TBI will maintain a sealed record of the case file for 10 years, after which it will be destroyed.  The record will be unsealed if the person becomes missing on a subsequent occasion or for evidentiary purposes in any civil litigation against the TBI. 

       The TBI will establish rules relating to the unsealing of records, including a two-hour time limit for unsealing records from the time the TBI receives a report that a citizen with a previous record is missing. The TBI is required to make these files available to the law enforcement agencies that are in pursuit of locating missing persons. 

       ON APRIL 17, 2017, THE HOUSE ADOPTED AMENDMENT #1 AND PASSED HOUSE BILL 44, AS AMENDED.

     AMENDMENT #1 rewrites this bill and requires that in all cases in which the county medical examiner is not satisfied with the decedent's identification the body must be referred for examination to a regional forensic center.  This amendment defines "regional forensic center" as a facility accredited by the National Association of Medical Examiners at which autopsies are performed pursuant to present law.
     This amendment requires the regional forensic center to furnish the Tennessee bureau of investigation (TBI) and the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System created by the United States department of justice's national institute of justice (NamUs), if physically possible, with copies of fingerprints on standardized eight inch by eight inch fingerprint cards or the equivalent digital image; prints or partial prints of any fingers; any forensic odontology report concerning the body; detailed personal descriptions; DNA results; and all other identifying data, including date and place of death, of all deceased persons whose deaths are in a classification requiring inquiry by the medical examiner and who remain unidentified after all available methods have been exhausted.
     Under this amendment, when any person makes a report of a missing person to a law enforcement agency, the agency must immediately request a member of the family or next of kin of the missing person to authorize the release to local law enforcement of the dental records of the person reported missing.  If the person reported missing is still missing 30 days after the report is made, the law enforcement agency must deliver the release to the dentist or dentists of the missing person, and request the dentist or dentists to deliver such records, including dental x-rays, to the local law enforcement agency.  If the person reported missing has not been found within the first 30 days and no family or next of kin exists or can be located, the law enforcement agency may execute a written declaration, stating that an active investigation seeking the location of the missing person is being conducted and that the dental records are necessary for the exclusive purpose of furthering the investigation.  Such written declaration, signed by a law enforcement officer, will be sufficient authority for the dentist or dentists to release the missing person's dental records, including dental x-rays, to the local law enforcement agency, and may not be the basis for disciplinary action.  Upon receipt of a properly executed release and request or declaration, the dentist or dentists must forward the dental records, including dental x-rays, to local law enforcement, where a file will be maintained concerning persons reported as missing and who have not been reported as found.  Within 10 days of receipt, a copy of the dental records, including x-rays, must be forwarded to NamUS by the local law enforcement agency or the TBI.
     Whenever a law enforcement agency determines that a person is a missing citizen, or that an unidentified living person may be a missing citizen, such law enforcement agency must enter the report of such missing citizen in any database of missing persons currently required by their agency, into any missing person database utilized by the TBI and into NamUs.  If the TBI receives the report of a missing citizen, the TBI must maintain a record of the case file.  
     This amendment requires the TBI to promulgate rules relating to the dissemination of the records.  The rules must require that the process of releasing the records take no longer than 48 hours from the time the TBI receives a report that a citizen, for whom there is a previous record, is missing.  The record may be disseminated if the individual to whom the record pertains is reported missing on a subsequent occasion or if needed for evidentiary purposes in any civil litigation against the TBI or its personnel that arises from the investigation.  In the event that there are grounds for a criminal action arising from the investigation, this amendment will not prohibit the TBI from allowing the records to remain until criminal action is concluded or otherwise resolved. 
     This amendment specifies that the information contained in the TBI's missing person files must be made available to NamUs and to law enforcement agencies attempting to locate missing persons.
     This amendment prohibits a law enforcement agency from establishing or maintaining any policy that requires the observance of a waiting period before accepting and investigating a missing child report.  Upon receipt of a report of a missing child, a law enforcement agency must enter the child into the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) pursuant to federal bureau of investigation mandate, which is two hours from the time the child is reported missing to law enforcement.  When a person previously reported missing has been found, the sheriff, chief of police, medical examiner, regional forensic center, or other law enforcement agency must report to the TBI and to NamUs within 24 hours that the person has been found.
     This amendment specifies that it does not:
     (1)  Prohibit law enforcement agencies or regional forensic centers from maintaining case files related to missing citizens or unidentified bodies; or
     (2)  Supersedes the authority of the regional forensic center to obtain dental records, including charts and x-rays in cases in which these records are necessary for the identification of human remains as authorized in present law.
Statutes affected: 
Introduced: 68-221-403(a)(10), 68-221-403, 68-221-410(a), 68-221-410