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Billys Law
Topic Started: Aug 9 2009, 09:05 AM (867 Views)
Ell
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Heart of Gold
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Conn. rep. proposes legislation on missing adults
By KATIE NELSON Associated Press Writer
Updated: 08/06/2009 05:17:21 PM EDT


HARTFORD, Conn.—The unsolved case of a man who disappeared five years ago has prompted a Connecticut congressman to propose federal legislation aimed at improving efforts to find missing adults nationwide.
Democratic Rep. Chris Murphy said Thursday he will introduce the measure in the first week of September and is calling it "Billy's Law," after Billy Smolinski, a Waterbury man who has been missing since 2004.

If enacted, the measure would "help thousands of families across this country who are searching for loved ones, trying to bring potential closure to months, if not years, of agony," Murphy said during a news conference at the Capitol, where he appeared with Smolinski's mother.

The legislation would provide up to $2.4 million a year to merge data from two main database systems run by the Federal Bureau of Investigations and the Department of Justice, Murphy said.

The Department of Justice information is currently open to the public, while the FBI database is not. Merging the two would enable families to search all available data, update missing persons case information and examine data on unidentified bodies, he said.

"We know that our law enforcement is doing everything they can to find these individuals, but families want to be part of that search," Murphy said. "It's human nature to want to do everything you can ... to try to bring some resolution to a missing persons case."

The new law would also establish protocols for


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law enforcement agencies on how to handle and report such cases, and it would provide up to $10 million a year in grants for agencies that want to improve how they report and collect data on missing persons cases.
The proposed measure has the backing of Connecticut's state Department of Public Safety, said Trooper First Class Karen O'Connor, who spoke on behalf of the agency. The FBI and the Department of Justice have been consulted on the creation of the bill, Murphy said.

These new steps would close gaps in existing laws that are more geared toward missing children than missing adults, said Smolinski's mother, Janice Smolinski. It also would help bring closure to families of adults who vanished, she said.

"Uncertainty is a cancer that curses the spirit of loved ones left behind, destroys marriages and tears at the tissue of family bonds," Smolinski said.

The FBI says it had nearly 103,000 active missing persons files at the end of 2008. More than half those missing people were adults.

http://www.newstimes.com/ci_13007396
Ell

Only after the last tree has been
cut down;
Only after the last fish has been
caught;
Only after the last river has been
poisoned;
Only then will you realize
that money cannot be eaten.
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