Reps. Cockley, Ritter Provide Sponsor Testimony on Bipartisan FIND Act
COLUMBUS—State Reps. Christine Cockley (D-Columbus) and Kevin Ritter (R-Marietta) this week provided sponsor testimony on House Bill (HB) 217 in the House Public Safety Committee.
HB 217 – also known as the Finding and Identifying with NamUs Data (FIND) Act – requires law enforcement to enter missing persons cases into the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs) within 30 days of a report.
“This bill ensures that our investigators are working with the most complete information, and that families and loved ones are given a greater public voice in the search process,” said Rep. Cockley in her testimony to the committee. “The FIND Act empowers law enforcement with a powerful tool, while ensuring families get the support they need and deserve in the most difficult moments of their lives.”
“Too often, when children go missing in this country, they vanish across state lines and they become hard to locate,” said Rep. Ritter in his testimony to the committee. “The bill Representative Cockley and I have drafted, should it become law, will help reunite those missing children with their families.”
The goal of the FIND Act is to further integrate the existing law enforcement missing persons reporting system(s) with the only national repository for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases. According to committee testimony, the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (known as NamUs) was created in 2003 by experts at the Nations Institute of Justice. It is currently used in 16 states, and it has led to the location and identification of hundreds of living and deceased persons.
The FIND Act will ensure that Ohio’s law enforcement agencies participate in the system so they can have another resource at their disposal to help resolve cases involving missing and unidentified persons.
Rep. Cockley is encouraging people to stand with families of the missing and advocate for the passage of The FIND Act by:
- Signing up for updates on the bill’s status and committee activities;
- Contacting your state representative to request a meeting or express your support for HB 217. You can find your representative here;
- Contacting the Chair of the Public Safety Committee, Rep. Cindy Abrams (R-Harrison), to urge her to schedule the bill for hearings in her committee; and
- Submitting testimony when The FIND Act is next scheduled for committee.