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National Crime Information Center's Missing Person File

NCJ Number
84998
Journal
FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin Volume: 51 Issue: 8 Dated: (August 1982) Pages: 20-24
Author(s)
D R Bishop; T J Schuessler
Date Published
1982
Length
5 pages
Annotation
The National Crime Information Center's (NCIC) Nationwide Missing Person File enables law enforcement agencies to enter missing person records into the computer and inquire against this file with instantaneous response.
Abstract
Categories or records are (1) disability -- a person of any age who is missing and under proven physical or mental disability, thereby subjecting himself or others to personal and immediate danger; (2) endangered - a person of any age who is missing and is in the company of another person under circumstances that place him/her in danger; (3) involuntary -- a person of any age who is missing under circumstances that indicate the disappearance was not voluntary; and (4) juvenile -- a person who is missing and declared unemancipated as defined by the laws of the subject's State of residence and who does not meet the entry criteria of the other three categories. A record entered in the disability, endangered, or involuntary category is retained in the file indefinitely until a 'locate' is placed on the record or action is taken by the entering agency to delete the record. A record entered in the juvenile category is retained until the person is no longer a juvenile as defined by the statutes of his/her State. A record may be entered in the file if the entering agency has documentation supporting the stated conditions under which the person is declared missing. In addition to online searches of the NCIC computer by criminal justice agencies with NCIC terminals, special off-line computer searches not possible with a terminal may be conducted for all files by contacting the NCIC staff. An unidentified dead file pilot project is currently available to all criminal justice agencies for a test period of 2 years. Data are provided on the number of entries in each category of the Missing Person File. Three footnotes are provided.