Delaware General Assembly

AN ACT TO AMEND TITLE 11 OF THE DELAWARE CODE RELATING TO MISSING PERSONS.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE STATE OF DELAWARE:

(1) 'ACIM Alert Program' or 'ACIM' means 'A Child is Missing alert program'. The ACIM alert program is a national rapid-response communication network that offers free assistance to law enforcement agencies to aid in the recovery, identity, or apprehension of missing persons through the use of immediate public notification and dissemination of information via telephone in a targeted community.

(2) 'Gold Alert Program' or 'Program' means the procedures used to aid in the identification and location of a missing person as defined under subsections (4), (5), and (6) of this section. Gold Alerts may be local, regional, or statewide. The initial decision to issue a local Gold Alert is at the discretion of the investigating law enforcement agency.

(3) 'Investigating law enforcement agency' means the law enforcement agency which has primary jurisdiction in the area in which a missing-person complaint has been filed.

(4) 'Missing person with a disability' means a person:

(A) whose whereabouts are unknown;

(B) whose domicile at the time that he or she is reported missing is Delaware;

(C) who has a disability; and,

(D) whose disappearance poses a credible threat to the health or safety of the person, as determined by the investigating law enforcement agency.

(5) 'Missing senior citizen' means a person:

(A) whose whereabouts are unknown;

(B) whose domicile at the time that he or she is reported is missing is Delaware;

(C) whose age at the time that he or she is first reported missing is sixty years of age or older; and

(D) whose disappearance poses a credible threat to the health or safety of the person, as determined by the investigating law enforcement agency.

(6) 'Missing suicidal person' means a person:

(A) whose whereabouts are unknown;

(B) whose domicile at the time that he or she is reported missing is Delaware;

(C) whose disappearance is voluntary; and

(D) whose statements, actions, or conduct indicate that the missing person may voluntarily cause or inflict harm on himself or herself, and whose disappearance poses a credible threat to the health or safety of the person, as determined by the investigating law enforcement agency.

(1) procedures for the use of the Delaware Information Analysis Center (DIAC) to provide support to the investigating law enforcement agency as a resource for the receipt, analysis, and dissemination of information regarding the missing person and his or her whereabouts;

(2) procedures for the investigating law enforcement agency to use to verify whether a senior citizen, a suicidal person, or a person with a disability is missing and the circumstances under which the agency must enter descriptive information of the missing person into the Delaware Criminal Justice Information System (DELJIS) and the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) system. The investigating law enforcement agency shall further notify the Delaware Information Analysis Center (DIAC), who shall make all the necessary notifications and assist the investigating law enforcement agency; and

(3) the process for reporting the information to designated media outlets in Delaware.

Approved July 17, 2008