14200-14213
PENAL CODE
SECTION 14200-14213
14200. The Attorney General shall establish and maintain the Violent Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent crimes and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons, particularly children and dependent adults. The center shall establish and maintain programs which include, but are not limited to, all of the following: developing violent offender profiles; assisting local law enforcement agencies and county district attorneys by providing investigative information on persons responsible for specific violent crimes and missing person cases; providing physical description information and photographs, if available, of missing persons to county district attorneys, nonprofit missing persons organizations, and schools; and providing statistics on missing dependent adults and on missing children, including, as may be applicable, family abductions, nonfamily abductions, voluntary missing, and lost children or lost dependent adults. 14201. (a) The Attorney General shall establish within the center and shall maintain an online, automated computer system designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing persons. The Attorney General shall design the computer system, using any existing system, including the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System, to include an active file of information concerning persons reported to it as missing and who have not been reported as found. The computer system shall also include a confidential historic data base. The Attorney General shall develop a system of cataloging missing person reports according to a variety of characteristics in order to facilitate locating particular categories of reports as needed. (b) The Attorney General's active files described in subdivision (a) shall be made available to law enforcement agencies. The Attorney General shall provide to these agencies the name and personal description data of the missing person including, but not limited to, the person's date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height, weight, and race, the time and date he or she was reported missing, the reporting agency, and any other data pertinent to the purpose of locating missing persons. However, the Attorney General shall not release the information if the reporting agency requests the Attorney General in writing not to release the information because it would impair a criminal investigation. (c) The Attorney General shall distribute a missing children and dependent adults bulletin on a quarterly basis to local law enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and public schools. The Attorney General shall also make this information accessible to other parties involved in efforts to locate missing children and dependent adults and to those other persons as the Attorney General deems appropriate. This section shall become operative on July 1, 1989. 14201.1. The Attorney General shall establish and maintain, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, the Violent Crime Information Network within the center to enable the Department of Justice crime analysts with expertise in child abuse, missing persons, child abductions, and sexual assaults to electronically share their data, analysis, and findings on violent crime cases with each other, and to electronically provide law enforcement agencies with information to assist in the identification, tracking, and apprehension of violent offenders. The Violent Crime Information Network shall serve to integrate existing state, federal, and civilian data bases into a single comprehensive network. 14201.3. The center shall make accessible to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System specific information authorized for dissemination and as determined appropriate by the center that is contained in law enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified persons. The information shall be accessible in a manner and format approved by the center and shall be used to assist in the search for the missing person or persons. The center shall not permit the transmission or sharing of information, or portions of information, to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System unless the reporting agency, as specified in Section 14205, or the reporting party, with respect to the information submitted to the center, submits authorization to the center to transmit or share that information. 14201.5. (a) The Attorney General shall establish within the Department of Justice the Missing and Exploited Children's Recovery Network by July 31, 1995. (b) This network shall consist of an automated computerized system that shall have the capability to electronically transmit to all state and local law enforcement agencies, and all cooperating news media services, either by facsimile or computer modem, a missing child poster that includes the name, personal description data, and picture of the missing child. The information contained in this poster shall include, but not be limited to, the child's date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height, weight, race, the time and date he or she was reported missing, the reporting agency, including contact person at reporting agency if known, and any other data pertinent to the purpose of locating missing persons. (c) The Department of Justice shall work in cooperation with the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to develop and implement a network that can electronically interface with the National Missing and Exploited Children's Network. (d) The Attorney General shall implement this network within existing Department of Justice resources. 14201.6. (a) The Department of Justice shall establish and maintain a publicly accessible computer internet directory of information relating to the following: (1) Persons for whom an arrest warrant has been issued pursuant to an alleged violation of any offense defined as a violent felony in subdivision (c) of Section 667.5. (2) Critical missing children. (3) Unsolved homicides. (b) The Attorney General may determine the extent of information and the priority of cases to be included in the directory. (c) The department shall keep confidential, and not enter into the directory, either of the following: (1) Information regarding any case for which the Attorney General has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section would endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation. (2) Information regarding an arrest warrant for which the issuing magistrate has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section would endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or the successful completion of the investigation or a related investigation. (d) For purposes of this section, "critical missing child" includes, but is not limited to, any case of a missing child for which there is evidence or indications that the child is at risk, as specified in subdivision (b) of Section 14213. 14201.8. (a) There shall be within the Department of Justice a director responsible for coordinating California's response to missing persons. This position is hereby established for all of the following purposes: (1) To assist law enforcement agencies, at their request, with the timely search and recovery of at-risk abducted children. (2) To maintain up-to-date knowledge and expertise of those protocols, best practices, and technologies that are most effective for recovering missing children in a timely manner. (3) To maintain relationships with federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies and other entities responsible for the investigation of missing persons in the state. (4) To maintain records and make the Commission on Peace Officer Standards and Training Guidelines for Handling Missing Persons Investigations document available to law enforcement agencies upon request. (b) The director shall utilize existing resources and expertise within the Attorney General's office to the maximum extent possible to accomplish the purposes specified in subdivision (a). 14202. (a) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within the center an investigative support unit and an automated violent crime method of operation system to facilitate the identification and apprehension of persons responsible for murder, kidnap, including parental abduction, false imprisonment, or sexual assault. This unit shall be responsible for identifying perpetrators of violent felonies collected from the center and analyzing and comparing data on missing persons in order to determine possible leads which could assist local law enforcement agencies. This unit shall only release information about active investigations by police and sheriffs' departments to local law enforcement agencies. (b) The Attorney General shall make available to the investigative support unit files organized by category of offender or victim and shall seek information from other files as needed by the unit. This set of files may include, among others, the following: (1) Missing or unidentified, deceased persons' dental files filed pursuant to this title, Section 27521 of the Government Code, or Section 102870 of the Health and Safety Code. (2) Child abuse reports filed pursuant to Section 11169. (3) Sex offender registration files maintained pursuant to Section 290. (4) State summary criminal history information maintained pursuant to Section 11105. (5) Information obtained pursuant to the parent locator service maintained pursuant to Section 11478.1 of the Welfare and Institutions Code. (6) Information furnished to the Department of Justice pursuant to Section 11107. (7) Other Attorney General's office files as requested by the investigative support unit. (c) The investigative support unit shall make available, within two hours of a reported stranger abduction of a child, a list of persons required to register as sex offenders based upon the modus operandi, if available, or the specified geographical location from which the child was abducted. 14202.1. The Attorney General shall establish and maintain, upon appropriation of funds by the Legislature, within the center the Violent Crime Information System to track and monitor violent offenders and their activities. The Violent Crime Information System shall use computer technology to compare unsolved crime scene and methods of operation information against the file of known violent sexual assault, kidnapping, and homicide offenders, containing over 40,000 violent, kidnapping, and homicide offenders. The system shall provide local law enforcement agencies with investigative leads to assist in the resolution of violent crimes. 14202.2. (a) The Department of Justice, in conjunction with the Department of Corrections, shall update any supervised release file that is available to law enforcement on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System every 10 days to reflect the most recent inmates paroled from facilities under the jurisdiction of the Department of Corrections. (b) Commencing on July 1, 2001, The Department of Justice, in consultation with the State Department of Mental Health, shall also update any supervised release file that is available to law enforcement on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System every 10 days to reflect patients undergoing community mental health treatment and supervision through the Forensic Conditional Release Program administered by the State Department of Mental Health, other than individuals committed as incompetent to stand trial pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 1367) of Title 10 of Part 2. 14203. (a) The online missing persons registry shall accept and generate complete information on a missing person. (b) The information on a missing person shall be retrievable by any of the following: (1) The person's name. (2) The person's date of birth. (3) The person's social security number. (4) Whether a dental chart has been received, coded, and entered into the National Crime Information Center Missing Person System by the Attorney General. (5) The person's physical description, including hair and eye color and body marks. (6) The person's known associates. (7) The person's last known location. (8) The name or assumed name of the abductor, if applicable, other pertinent information relating to the abductor or the assumed abductor, or both. (9) Any other information, as deemed appropriate by the Attorney General. (c) The Attorney General, in consultation with local law enforcement agencies and other user groups, shall develop the form in which information shall be entered into the system. (d) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within the center a separate, confidential historic database relating to missing children and dependent adults. The historic database may be used only by the center for statistical and research purposes. The historic database shall be set up to categorize cases relating to missing children and dependent adults by type. These types shall include the following: runaways, voluntary missing, lost, abduction involving movement of the victim in the commission of the crime or sexual exploitation of the victim, nonfamily abduction, family abduction, and any other categories as determined by the Attorney General. In addition, the data shall include the number of missing children and missing dependent adults in this state and the category of each case. (e) The center may supply information about specific cases from the historic database to a local police department, sheriff's department, or district attorney, only in connection with an investigation by the police department, sheriff's department, or district attorney of a missing person case or a violation or attempted violation of Section 220, 261.5, 262, 273a, 273d, or 273.5, or any sex offense listed in Section 290, except for the offense specified in subdivision (d) of Section 243.4. 14204. The Attorney General shall provide training on the services provided by the center to line personnel, supervisors, and investigators in the following fields: law enforcement, district attorneys' offices, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation, probation departments, court mediation services, and the judiciary. 14205. (a) All local police and sheriffs' departments shall accept any report, including any telephonic report, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and shall give priority to the handling of these reports over the handling of reports relating to crimes involving property. In cases where the person making a report of a missing person or runaway, contacts, including by telephone, the California Highway Patrol, the California Highway Patrol may take the report, and shall immediately advise the person making the report of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's department having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person and of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's department having jurisdiction of the place where the person was last seen. In cases of reports involving missing persons, including, but not limited to, runaways, the local police or sheriff' s department shall immediately take the report and make an assessment of reasonable steps to be taken to locate the person. If the missing person is under 16 years of age, or there is evidence that the person is at risk, the department shall broadcast a "Be On the Look-Out" bulletin, without delay, within its jurisdiction. (b) If the person reported missing is under 16 years of age, or if there is evidence that the person is at risk, the local police, sheriff's department, or the California Highway Patrol shall submit the report to the Attorney General's office within four hours after accepting the report. After the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System online missing person registry becomes operational, the reports shall be submitted, within four hours after accepting the report, to the Attorney General's office through the use of the California Telecommunications System. (c) In cases where the report is taken by a department, other than that of the city or county of residence of the missing person or runaway, the department, or division of the California Highway Patrol taking the report shall, without delay, and, in the case of children under 16 years of age or where there was evidence that the missing person was at risk, within no more than 24 hours, notify, and forward a copy of the report to the police or sheriff's department or departments having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person or runaway and of the place where the person was last seen. The report shall also be submitted by the department or division of the California Highway Patrol which took the report to the center. (d) The requirements imposed by this section on local police and sheriff's departments shall not be operative if the governing body of that local agency, by a majority vote of the members of that body, adopts a resolution expressly making those requirements inoperative. 14205. (a) All local police and sheriffs' departments shall accept any report, including any telephonic report, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and shall give priority to the handling of these reports over the handling of reports relating to crimes involving property. In cases where the person making a report of a missing person or runaway, contacts, including by telephone, the California Highway Patrol, the California Highway Patrol may take the report, and shall immediately advise the person making the report of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's department having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person and of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's department having jurisdiction of the place where the person was last seen. In cases of reports involving missing persons, including, but not limited to, runaways, the local police or sheriff' s department shall immediately take the report and make an assessment of reasonable steps to be taken to locate the person. If the missing person is under 16 years of age, or there is evidence that the person is at risk, the department shall broadcast a "Be On the Look-Out" bulletin, without delay, within its jurisdiction. (b) If the person reported missing is under 21 years of age, or if there is evidence that the person is at risk, the law enforcement agency receiving the report shall, within two hours after the receipt of the report, transmit the report to the Department of Justice for inclusion in the Violent Crime Information Center and the National Crime Information Center databases. (c) In cases where the report is taken by a department, other than that of the city or county of residence of the missing person or runaway, the department, or division of the California Highway Patrol taking the report shall, without delay, and, in the case of children under 16 years of age or where there was evidence that the missing person was at risk, within no more than 24 hours, notify, and forward a copy of the report to the police or sheriff's department or departments having jurisdiction of the residence address of the missing person or runaway and of the place where the person was last seen. The report shall also be submitted by the department or division of the California Highway Patrol which took the report to the center. (d) The requirements imposed by this section on local police and sheriffs' departments shall not be operative if the governing body of that local agency, by a majority vote of the members of that body, adopts a resolution expressly making those requirements inoperative. 14206. (a) (1) When any person makes a report of a missing person to a police department, sheriff's department, district attorney's office, California Highway Patrol, or other law enforcement agency, the report shall be given in person or by mail in a format acceptable to the Attorney General. That form shall include a statement authorizing the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, of the person reported missing and authorizing the release of a recent photograph of a person reported missing who is under 18 years of age. Included with the form shall be instructions which state that if the person reported missing is still missing 30 days after the report is made, the release form signed by a member of the family or next of kin of the missing person shall be taken by the family member or next of kin to the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility in order to obtain the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, of that person or may be taken by a peace officer, if others fail to take action, to secure those X-rays. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, shall be released by the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility to the person presenting the request and shall be submitted within 10 days by that person to the police or sheriff's department or other law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the investigation. When the person reported missing has not been found within 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 or skeletal X-rays, or both, are necessary for the exclusive purpose of furthering the investigation. Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the written declaration, signed by a peace officer, is sufficient authority for the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility to release the missing person's dental or skeletal X-rays, or both. (2) The form provided under this subdivision shall also state that if the person reported missing is under 18 years of age, the completed form shall be taken to the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility immediately when the law enforcement agency determines that the disappearance involves evidence that the person is at risk or when the law enforcement agency determines that the person missing is under 16 years of age and has been missing at least 14 days. The form shall further provide that the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and a recent photograph of the missing child shall be submitted immediately to the law enforcement agency. Whenever authorized under this subdivision to execute a written declaration to obtain the release of dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, is provided, the investigating law enforcement agency may obtain those X-rays when a person reported missing is under 18 years of age and the law enforcement agency determines that the disappearance involves evidence that the person is at risk. In each case, the law enforcement agency may confer immediately with the coroner or medical examiners and may submit its report including the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, within 24 hours thereafter to the Attorney General. The Attorney General's office shall code and enter the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, into the center. (b) When a person reported missing has not been found within 45 days, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law enforcement agency conducting the investigation for the missing person may confer with the coroner or medical examiner prior to the preparation of a missing person report. The coroner or medical examiner shall cooperate with the law enforcement agency. After conferring with the coroner or medical examiner, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law enforcement agency initiating and conducting the investigation for the missing person may submit a missing person report and the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, and photograph received pursuant to subdivision (a) to the Attorney General's office in a format acceptable to the Attorney General. (c) Nothing in this section prohibits a parent or guardian of a child, reported to a law enforcement agency as missing, from voluntarily submitting fingerprints, and other documents, to the law enforcement agency accepting the report for inclusion in the report which is submitted to the Attorney General. (d) The requirements imposed by this section on local police and sheriff's departments shall not be operative if the governing body of that local agency, by a majority vote of the members of that body, adopts a resolution expressly making those requirements inoperative. 14207. (a) When a person reported missing has been found, the sheriff, chief of police, coroner or medical examiner, or the law enforcement agency locating the missing person shall immediately report that information to the Attorney General's office. (b) When a child under 12 years of age or a missing person, where there was evidence that the person was at risk, is found, the report indicating that the person is found shall be made not later than 24 hours after the person is found. A report shall also be made to the law enforcement agency that made the initial missing person report. The Attorney General's office shall then notify the National Crime Information Center that the missing person has been found. (c) In the event that a missing person is found alive or dead in less than 24 hours and the local police or sheriff's department has reason to believe that the person had been abducted, the department shall submit a report to the center in a format established by the Attorney General. In the event that a missing person has been found before he or she has been reported missing to the center, the information related to the incident shall be submitted to the center. 14208. (a) The Department of Justice shall operate a statewide, toll-free telephone hotline 24 hours per day, seven days per week to receive information regarding missing children and dependent adults and relay this information to the appropriate law enforcement authorities. (b) The Department of Justice shall select up to six children per month from the missing children registry maintained pursuant to former Section 11114 or pursuant to the system maintained pursuant to Sections 14201 and 14202 and shall produce posters with photographs and information regarding these children, including the missing children hotline telephone number and reward information. The department shall make these posters available to parties as prescribed and as the department deems appropriate. 14209. (a) The Department of Justice shall provide appropriate local reporting agencies with a list of persons still listed as missing who are under 18 years of age, with an appropriate waiver form in order to assist the reporting agency in obtaining a photograph of each of the missing children. (b) Local reporting agencies shall attempt to obtain the most recent photograph available for persons still listed as missing and forward those photographs to the Department of Justice. (c) The department shall include these photographs, as they become available, in the quarterly bulletins pursuant to subdivision (c) of Section 14201. (d) State and local elected officials, agencies, departments, boards, and commissions may enclose in their mailings information regarding missing children or dependent adults obtainable from the Department of Justice or any organization that is recognized as a nonprofit, tax-exempt organization under state or federal law and that has an ongoing missing children program. Elected officials, agency secretaries, and directors of departments, boards, and commissions are urged to develop policies to enclose missing children or dependent adults information in mailings when it will not increase postage costs, and is otherwise deemed appropriate. 14210. (a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the duty of all law enforcement agencies to immediately assist any person who is attempting to make a report of a missing person or runaway. (b) The Department of the California Highway Patrol shall continue to implement the written policy, required to be developed and adopted pursuant to former Section 11114.3, for the coordination of each of its divisions with the police and sheriffs' departments located within each division in taking, transmitting, and investigating reports of missing persons, including runaways. 14213. (a) As used in this title, "missing person" includes, but is not limited to, a child who has been taken, detained, concealed, enticed away, or retained by a parent in violation of Chapter 4 (commencing with Section 277) of Title 9 of Part 1. It also includes any child who is missing voluntarily or involuntarily, or under circumstances not conforming to his or her ordinary habits or behavior and who may be in need of assistance. (b) As used in this title, "evidence that the person is at risk" includes, but is not limited to, evidence or indications of any of the following: (1) The person missing is the victim of a crime or foul play. (2) The person missing is in need of medical attention. (3) The person missing has no pattern of running away or disappearing. (4) The person missing may be the victim of parental abduction. (5) The person missing is mentally impaired. (c) As used in this title, "child" is any person under the age of 18. (d) As used in this title, "center" means the Violent Crime Information Center. (e) As used in this title, "dependent adult" is any person described in subdivision (h) of Section 368, regardless of whether the person lives independently. (f) As used in this title, "dental or medical records or X-rays," include all those records or X-rays which are in the possession of a dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility.