Chapter 500
AN ACT
SB 351
Relating to missing persons; creating new provisions; and amending ORS
146.003, 146.515, 146.525, 146.535, 146.545, 181.505, 181.506 and 181.643.
Be It Enacted by the People of
the State of
SECTION 1.
ORS 146.003 is amended to read:
146.003. As used in ORS
146.003 to 146.165 and 146.710 to 146.992, unless the context requires
otherwise:
(1) “Approved laboratory”
means a laboratory approved by the State Medical Examiner as competent to
perform the blood sample analysis required by ORS 146.113 (2).
(2) “Assistant district
medical examiner” means a physician appointed by the district medical examiner
to investigate and certify deaths within a county or district.
(3) “Cause of death”
means the primary or basic disease process or injury ending life.
(4) “Death requiring
investigation” means the death of a person occurring in any one of the
circumstances set forth in ORS 146.090.
(5) “Deputy medical
examiner” means a person appointed by the district medical examiner to assist
in the investigation of deaths within a county.
(6) “District medical
examiner” means a physician appointed by the State Medical Examiner to
investigate and certify deaths within a county or district, including a Deputy
State Medical Examiner.
(7) “Law enforcement
agency” means a county sheriff’s office, municipal police department and the
[(7)] (8) “Legal intervention” includes an execution pursuant
to ORS 137.463, 137.467 and 137.473 and other legal use of force resulting in
death.
[(8)] (9) “Manner of death” means the designation of the
probable mode of production of the cause of death, including natural,
accidental, suicidal, homicidal, legal intervention or undetermined.
[(9)] (10) “Medical examiner” means a physician appointed as
provided by ORS 146.003 to 146.165 to investigate and certify the cause and
manner of deaths requiring investigation, including the State Medical Examiner.
[(10)] (11) “Pathologist” means a physician holding a current
license to practice medicine and surgery and who is eligible for certification
by the American Board of Pathology.
(12) “Unidentified
human remains” does not include human remains that are unidentified human
remains that are part of an archaeological site or suspected of being Native
American and covered under ORS chapters 97 and 390 and ORS 358.905 to 358.961.
SECTION 2. Written
policies adopted by
(1) Requirements for
accepting missing persons reports;
(2) Procedures for
initial investigations;
(3) Responsibility for
follow-up investigations;
(4) Standards for
maintaining and clearing computer data of missing persons information stored in
the Law Enforcement Data System and the National Crime Information Center; and
(5) Initiation and
activation criteria for Amber Plan alerts under ORS 181.035.
SECTION 3.
ORS 146.525 is amended to read:
146.525. (1) When a
person is reported as missing to any city, county or state police agency, the
agency, within 12 hours thereafter, shall enter into state and federal records
maintained for that purpose, a report of the missing person in a format and
according to procedures established by the authorities responsible respectively
for the state and federal records.
(2) The [police] law enforcement agency to
which the report is made:
(a) [Shall] May request from the
person making the report information or material likely to be useful in
identifying the missing person or the human remains of the missing person,
including, but not limited to:[; and]
(A) The name of the
missing person and any alternative names the person uses;
(B) The date of birth of
the missing person;
(C) A physical
description of the missing person, including the height, weight, gender, race, eye
color, current hair color and natural hair color of the missing person, any
identifying marks on the missing person, any prosthetics used by, or surgical
implants in, the missing person and any physical anomalies of the missing
person;
(D) The blood type of
the missing person;
(E) The driver license
number of the missing person;
(F) The Social Security
number of the missing person;
(G) A recent photograph
of the missing person;
(H) A description of the
clothing the missing person is believed to have been wearing at the time the
person disappeared;
(I) A description of
items that the missing person is believed to have had with the person at the
time the person disappeared;
(J) Telephone numbers
and electronic mail addresses of the missing person;
(K) The name and address
of any school the missing person attends;
(L) The name and address
of any employer of the missing person;
(M) The name and address
of the primary care physician and dentist of the missing person;
(N) A description of any
vehicle that the missing person might have been driving or riding in when the
person disappeared;
(O) The reasons why the
person making the missing person report believes the person is missing;
(P) Any circumstances
that indicate that the missing person may be at risk of injury or death;
(Q) Any circumstances
that may indicate that the disappearance is not voluntary;
(R) Information about a
known or possible abductor or a person who was last seen with the missing
person; and
(S) The date of the last
contact with the missing person.
(b) May request in
writing from any dentist, denturist, physician, optometrist or other medical
practitioner possessing it such medical, dental [and] or other physically descriptive information as is
likely to be useful in identifying the missing person or the human remains of
the missing person.
(3) The [police] law enforcement agency,
upon obtaining information pursuant to subsection (2) of this section, shall
make a supplementary entry of that information into the state and federal
records described in subsection (1) of this section. The supplementary report
shall be in a format and according to procedures established by the authorities
responsible respectively for the state and federal records.
SECTION 4. (1)
If a person who has been reported as missing has not been located within 30
days after the missing person report is made, the law enforcement agency that
accepted the missing persons report shall attempt to obtain a DNA sample from
the missing person or from family members of the missing person in addition to
any documentation necessary to enable the agency to use the samples in
conducting searches of DNA databases.
(2) A law enforcement
agency shall forward a DNA sample obtained for use in a missing persons case as
directed by the Department of State Police.
(3) A person, or the
executor of the person’s estate, who was a missing person and who had a DNA
sample obtained for use in the person’s case may request the destruction of the
DNA sample, and any resultant database entries, when the missing person has
been located or identified. The request shall be made in writing to the
department. The department, upon confirming that the status of the missing
person has been resolved, shall destroy the DNA sample and remove any database
entries related to the DNA sample.
(4) As used in this
section, “DNA” means deoxyribonucleic acid.
SECTION 5.
ORS 146.515 is amended to read:
146.515. (1) If a
medical examiner is unable to determine the identity of human remains, the
medical examiner shall, not later than 30 days after such remains are brought
to the medical examiner’s attention, notify and provide to the Superintendent
of State Police or the superintendent’s designee all information in the medical
examiner’s records concerning the remains.
(2) The medical
examiner shall make reasonable attempts to promptly identify human remains and
may consider procedures consistent with current forensic autopsy performance
standards of the National Association of Medical Examiners. Reasonable attempts
to identify human remains include, but are not limited to, obtaining:
(a) Photographs of the
remains prior to an autopsy;
(b) Dental or skeletal
X-rays of the remains;
(c) Photographs of items
found with the remains;
(d) Fingerprints of the
remains; and
(e) Samples of tissue,
bone or hair from the remains that are suitable for DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid)
analysis.
(3) The medical examiner
may not dispose of unidentified human remains, or take any action that
materially affects the unidentified human remains, before the medical examiner
completes the steps described in subsection (2) of this section.
SECTION 6.
ORS 146.535 is amended to read:
146.535. (1) A dentist,
denturist, physician, optometrist or other medical practitioner, upon receipt
of a written request from a [police]
law enforcement agency for identifying information pursuant to ORS 146.525,
shall furnish to the [police] agency
such information known to the practitioner upon the request forms provided by
the [police] agency.
(2) Information obtained
under this section is restricted to use for the identification of missing
persons or the identification of unidentified human remains and [shall not otherwise be] may not be
made available to the public.
(3) Compliance with a
written request for information under this section by a dentist, denturist,
physician, optometrist or other medical practitioner does not constitute a
breach of confidentiality.
SECTION 7.
ORS 146.545 is amended to read:
146.545. (1) If the
Superintendent of State Police is notified that a record of unidentified human
remains filed by the Department of State Police under ORS 146.505 corresponds
with the record of a person reported [to
be] as missing, the superintendent shall immediately notify the
medical examiner who reported the unidentified human remains and the [police] law enforcement agency
that filed the missing person report under ORS 146.525. If the medical examiner
identifies the remains, the medical examiner shall immediately notify
the superintendent [shall be notified]
and the superintendent shall cancel the report of unidentified human remains.
(2) When a person
reported as missing under ORS 146.525 is found, or when the remains of the
person have been discovered and identified, the [police] law enforcement agency to which the person was
reported missing shall cancel the reports to state and federal authorities
under ORS 146.525. The agency shall destroy all information and material
received under ORS 146.525 relating to a missing person who is discovered to be
living. In the case of a missing person found to be no longer living, the
agency shall seal the information and material obtained under ORS
146.525, except as otherwise may be necessary to investigate or prosecute a
criminal action relating to the person’s disappearance or death.
SECTION 8.
ORS 181.505 is amended to read:
181.505. (1) The Oregon
State Police shall establish and maintain a missing children and adults
clearinghouse that receives from and distributes to local law enforcement agencies,
school districts, state and federal agencies and the general public information
regarding missing children and adults.
(2) The information
shall include technical and logistical assistance, pictures, bulletins,
training sessions, reports and biographical materials that assist local efforts
to locate missing children and adults.
(3) The Oregon State
Police shall maintain a regularly updated computerized link with national and
other statewide missing person reporting systems or clearinghouses.
SECTION 9.
ORS 181.506 is amended to read:
181.506. The
administrator of the missing children and adults clearinghouse
established pursuant to ORS 181.505 shall:
(1) Provide information
and training to local law enforcement agencies and child welfare agencies
and to other state agencies having child welfare duties.
(2) Appoint an advisory
committee consisting of persons with interest and training related to missing
children and adults to advise the administrator on operation of
the clearinghouse and to serve without compensation or expense reimbursement.
(3) Seek public and
private grants and gifts for purposes of the clearinghouse and the duties
required by this section.
(4) Maintain a 24-hour
hotline to receive and provide information on missing children and adults.
SECTION 10.
ORS 181.643 is amended to read:
181.643. Subject to the
availability of funds, the Board on Public Safety Standards and Training shall
ensure that all police officers and certified reserve officers are trained to
investigate and report cases of missing children and adults. When
federal training programs are made available to the state at no cost to the
state, the board shall offer the training to police officers and certified
reserve officers.
SECTION 11. ORS
146.505, 146.515, 146.525, 146.535 and 146.545 and sections 2 and 4 of this
2007 Act are added to and made a part of ORS 146.003 to 146.165.
Approved by the Governor June 20, 2007
Filed in the office of Secretary of State June 21, 2007
Effective date January 1, 2008
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