PRIA, Government Policy, Made Personal

Summary

The Attorney General must let the National Institute of Justice or its designee that runs NamUs access the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person files within 1 year after December 27, 2022, so they can review and match cases. Within 6 months after December 27, 2022, the Attorney General must assess the NCIC and NamUs systems and laws and provide a plan for secure, automatic sharing. The plan must send missing-person records with MNP code CA (Child Abduction) or AA (Amber Alert) within 72 hours; MNP code EME (Endangered) or EMI (Involuntary) within 30 days; other missing-person cases active in NCIC for 180 days; and unidentified-person cases active in NCIC for 60 days. Once a case is sent to NamUs, NCIC must mark it and send any updates within 24 hours. Within 1 year after December 27, 2022, the Attorney General, after consulting the FBI Director and after public notice and comment, must create rules saying what NCIC information NamUs may access or receive. Those rules must protect confidential, private, and law enforcement‑sensitive information and must say when parts of a record can be withheld from NamUs.

Title 34, §40507

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(a)Access to NCIC

Not later than 1 year after December 27, 2022, the Attorney General shall, in accordance with this section, provide access to the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person Files to the National Institute of Justice or its designee administering the NamUs program as a grantee or contractor, for the purpose of reviewing missing and unidentified person records in NCIC for case validation and NamUs data reconciliation.

(b)Electronic data sharing

Not later than 6 months after December 27, 2022, the Attorney General shall, in accordance with this section, have completed an assessment of the NCIC and NamUs system architectures and governing statutes, policies, and procedures and provide a proposed plan for the secure and automatic data transmission of missing and unidentified person records that are reported to and entered into the NCIC database, with the following criteria, to be electronically transmitted to the NamUs system.

(1)Missing Person cases with an MNP (Missing Person) code of CA (Child Abduction) or AA (Amber Alert) within 72 hours of entry into NCIC;

(2)Missing Person cases with an MNP code EME (Endangered) or EMI (Involuntary) within 30 days of entry into NCIC;

(3)All other Missing Person cases that have been active (non-cancelled) in NCIC for 180 days;

(4)Unidentified person cases that have been active (non-cancelled) in NCIC for 60 days;

(5)Once case data are transmitted to NamUs, cases are marked as such within NCIC, and any updates to such cases will be transmitted to NamUs within 24 hours.

(c)Rules on confidentiality

(1)In general

Not later than 1 year after December 27, 2022, the Attorney General, in consultation with the Director of the FBI, shall promulgate rules pursuant to notice and comment that specify the information the Attorney General may allow NamUs to access from the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person files or be transmitted from the NCIC database to the NamUs databases for purposes of this Act. Such rules shall—

(A)provide for the protection of confidential, private, and law enforcement sensitive information contained in the NCIC Missing Person and Unidentified Person files; and

(B)specify the circumstances in which access to portions of information in the Missing Person and Unidentified Person files may be withheld from the NamUs databases.

Notes & Related Subsidiaries

Editorial Notes

References in Text

This Act, referred to in subsec. (c)(1), is Pub. L. 117–327, Dec. 27, 2022, 136 Stat. 4454, known as Billy’s Law and also as the Help Find the Missing Act, which is classified principally to sections 40506 to 40508 of this title. For complete classification of this Act to the Code, see

Short Title

of 2022 Amendment note set out under section 10101 of this title and Tables. Codification Section was enacted as part of Billy’s Law, also known as the Help Find the Missing Act, and not as part of Jennifer’s Law which comprises this chapter.

Statutory Notes and Related Subsidiaries

Definitions For definitions of terms used in this section, see section 6 of Pub. L. 117–327, set out as a note under section 40506 of this title.

§40507 Information Sharing