Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8544 – Filing missing child reports; notification upon location; purging …
(a) Every constable, chief police officer, officer in charge, member of the State Police and other law-enforcement agency and officer of the State and of any local governmental unit shall immediately accept and act upon information on any missing child by police radio broadcasts and by causing missing child entries into DELJIS and NCIC and shall transmit information to the Clearinghouse, so far as available, on a missing child report concerning a missing child within 24 hours after receipt thereof. The investigating law-enforcement agency shall also notify the Delaware Information Analysis Center (DIAC) who shall assist the investigating law-enforcement agency in regard to the search and location of the missing child.
Terms Used In Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8544
- Child: means a person who has not reached the age of 18 years. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
- Guardian: A person legally empowered and charged with the duty of taking care of and managing the property of another person who because of age, intellect, or health, is incapable of managing his (her) own affairs.
- Jurisdiction: (1) The legal authority of a court to hear and decide a case. Concurrent jurisdiction exists when two courts have simultaneous responsibility for the same case. (2) The geographic area over which the court has authority to decide cases.
- Missing child: means any person who is under the age of 18 years, whose temporary or permanent residence is in Delaware, or is believed to be in Delaware, whose location has not been determined, and who has been reported as missing to a law-enforcement agency. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8542
- Missing child report: is a report prepared on a form designed by the Clearinghouse for use by private citizens and law-enforcement agencies to report missing children information to the Clearinghouse. See Delaware Code Title 11 Sec. 8542
- State: means the State of Delaware; and when applied to different parts of the United States, it includes the District of Columbia and the several territories and possessions of the United States. See Delaware Code Title 1 Sec. 302
(b) Any parent, guardian or legal custodian may submit a missing child report to a local law-enforcement agency having jurisdiction for investigation and referral of the missing child report to the Clearinghouse on any child whose whereabouts is unknown, regardless of the circumstances, which shall be included in the Clearinghouse data base.
(c) The parent, guardian or legal custodian responsible for notifying the Clearinghouse or a law-enforcement agency of a missing child shall immediately notify such agency or the Clearinghouse of any child whose location has been determined.
(d) Information received pursuant to this section shall be purged by the appropriate law-enforcement agency and the Clearinghouse immediately upon location of a missing child who has been included in the Clearinghouse database. Any fingerprints of a missing child provided to a law-enforcement agency or the Clearinghouse by a parent, guardian or legal custodian shall be returned to the person providing them upon location of a missing child.
(e) The Delaware State Police shall adopt rules and regulations for the utilization of the DIAC to assist investigative law-enforcement agencies during their investigation as a resource for the receipt, analysis and dissemination of information to those entities that have a need and right to know about the missing child.
64 Del. Laws, c. 388, § ?1; 65 Del. Laws, c. 48, § ?1; 76 Del. Laws, c. 385, §§ ?1, 2; 78 Del. Laws, c. 266, § ?6;