THE AMENHOTEP LAW
"THERE ARE AN ESTIMATED 365,000 CHILDREN REPORTED MISSING EVERY YEAR IN THE UNITED STATES."
THE AMENHOTEP LAW
The Amenhotep Law is designed to empower parents and to give their voices credibility when their children go missing.
Key provisions would include:
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Each state law enforcement agency must implement a system for how to communicate to law enforcement officers when a child was missing. This would include updates to law enforcement officers and an escalation when the missing child has not been seen in more than 5 days. Law enforcement officers would have an expectation of awareness concerning missing children in their locality.
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Each state law enforcement agency would establish clearly defined protocols related to their urgent response concerning missing children. These protocols would be made public to the constituents of the community to ensure transparency and fair treatment of all children regardless of race, socioeconomic status or history with law enforcement. These protocols would be shared with local organizations to ensure communication and explanation of the procedures and guidelines are clearly communicated to parents.
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Each state law enforcement agency would establish a code word that can be used by parents and/or care givers to sound a “911” alarm as it relates to a missing child. This instant alert would indicate that the parent believes the child is in imminent danger and their disappearance should be treated as an abduction or kidnapping, as opposed to a runaway.
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Each state law enforcement agency would clearly define and outline all of the stipulations relative to any alerts (such as Amber alerts) and partner with community organizations to ensure that parents within the community know and understand the different types of alerts that can be issued.
MISSING CHILDREN STATISTICS
91%
ENDANGERED RUNAWAYS
5%
FAMILY ABDUCTIONS
3%
CRITICALLY MISSING YOUNG ADULTS (18-20)
Unfortunately, since many children are never reported missing, there is no reliable way to determine the total number of children who are actually missing in the U.S.
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When a child is reported missing to law enforcement, federal law requires that child be entered into the FBI’s National Crime Information Center, also known as NCIC.
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According to the FBI, in 2020 there were 365,348 NCIC entries for missing children. In 2019, the total number of missing children entries into NCIC was 421,394.