April 3, 2018 — NamUs legislation the key to solving “missing” and “unidentified” cases?

One central database? Would that speed the search for and identification of missing children. That’s the case Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Sarah Krebs of the Michigan State Police is making in her attempt to have the Michigan legislature move a bill that would require state agencies to work through the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System (NamUs). This is from an mlive story by Brad Devereaux:

Thousands of Michigan missing person cases are active at any given time, including about 1,300 children currently. 

But the public only hears about a fraction of them. 

Besides cases of an endangered person, which can trigger alerts to cell phones, missing person cases are made public only after an official missing report is filed and police submit case details to a public database, or otherwise publicize the case. 

That means while some missing people are featured on posters, displayed online and shared on social media, others are shelved in a folder at a local police department. 

If police departments were required to submit missing person cases to the U.S. Department of Justice’s public NamUs database, it could help them solve more of them, said Michigan State Police Detective Sgt. Sarah Krebs of the MSP Missing Persons Coordination Unit. 

A bill making its way through the Michigan Legislature would do just that.

Legislation that passed the House 109-0 on March 1 would require police agencies to require reporting of certain missing cases to the federal database, including all missing children, immediately after they are reported missing.

It would also require details about unidentified bodies to be submitted to the database. 

“We need a more centralized database that the public can access,” Krebs said. “If NamUs was state mandated for all law enforcement, this database would be incredible.”

You can read the entire story here.

And you can visit the NamUs site here. If you have time, take a look at this little video.

Frankly, NamUs is what part of Delayed Justice wanted to be IF it grew up…only it’s better, has far greater reach, and is funded. So far it sounds like a better than good idea. Are there drawbacks? Does it mean just one more thank for law enforcement to tend to? Let’s hear from those who might be involved. Most officers of the law already do their best to reach out for leads. Most investigators I know already make use of NamUs. Is there a downside? If not, let’s go.