Governor DeWine Urges Attorney General to Strengthen Laws on Missing Persons

Cleveland, OH (WOIO)—Governor Mike DeWine has requested assistance from the U.S. Attorney General to enhance the handling of missing persons cases in Ohio.

This week, he informed their office about a problem he claimed affects the speed and efficiency with which law enforcement can probe such cases and locate missing individuals.

The 19 Investigations team obtained a copy of his reply to one of the suggestions issued by the Ohio MissingPersons Working Group when they met with the governor earlier this week.

In the letter, Governor DeWine stated that "shortcomings" in data sharing are "squandering crucial moments when the lives of children, adults, or other susceptible individuals are at risk."

DeWine penned the letter to Attorney General Pam Bondi, requesting her office to put into action and uphold "a legislation that became effective during the prior presidential term but remained unenforced."

It’s called Billy’s Law .

As per legal requirements, once an individual goes missing, the investigative body must input the details of the case into two separate databases.

To start with, we have the National Crime Information Center, also known as NCIC.

Secondly, there is the National Missing and UnidentifiedPersons System, known as NAMUS. NamUs , which catalogs and links together cases of missing individuals and unidentifiable remains.

These two databases should have the capability to exchange information.

However, the governor stated, "The Ohio Bureau of Criminal Investigation (BCI) has pointed out that this integration... has not occurred" over two years since the legislation was enacted.

As a result, he stated that law enforcement organizations must manually enter case details into both systems individually, which is "not just inefficient but can lead to discrepancies and potential mistakes in the data across these two databases."

DeWine and the working group members want to see the information automatically shared between databases to free up time for police to investigate these cases and help the families of the missing.

The Ohio MissingPersons Working Group proposed over a dozen suggestions to enhance missing person cases across the state, which includes potential amendments to state legislation.

You have the option to go through their report. here .

We'll keep tracking this issue and inform you about the reaction of the attorney general to this letter.

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