Public Meeting Notice  Missing Persons Task Force Meeting

Missing Persons Task Force Meeting Minutes

September 4, 2019

McCormack Building - One Ashburton Place

2^nd Floor, Somerset Conference Rm.

Boston, MA 02108

Members Present:

Angela F. F. Davis, Chair

Erica Cushna, Committee for Public Council Services/designee
Tara Maguire, Massachusetts District Attorneys (MDAA)/designee

Sarah Kiley Schoff, Forensic Anthropologist

Chief Steven Wojnar, Massachusetts Chiefs of Police Association (MCOPA)/designee

Members Not Present:

Sgt. Nicole Morrell, Massachusetts State Police

Lian Hogan, DCF Designee

Others in Attendance:

Spencer Lord, EOPSS Legal

Michaela Martini, EOPSS

            Daniel Hutchinson, DCJIS

            Cliff Goodband, EOPSS

            Marcia Roddy, DCF

            Chris Martel, DCF

Chair Davis called the meeting to order at 1:09 p.m.  A motion was made and passed unanimously to approve the meeting minutes of July 23, 2019.

Updates were given regarding the data process.  Cliff G. shared that he ran searches going back ten years and determined the age at time of reported missing and sent the file along including identifying information to Sarah G.  Cliff G. offered to work with Sarah to further refine the data. He also offered to reach out to the Commonwealth Fusion Center with respect to Geocoding.

Chair Davis acknowledged that some task force members have requested more time to submit policy/legislative recommendations for discussion and inclusion in the final report.  Chair asked the membership if they were comfortable extending the deadline to September 18^th, and all agreed. Chair reminded the group that while an extension is approved the goal of having final report done shortly remains.  Marcia Roddy shared DCF’s verbal recommendations, subject to approval by staff at DCF. There was discussion regarding future legislation allowing law enforcement to take missing persons into custody if they are believed to be in danger, and for future legislation to be implemented for law enforcement agencies encouraging collaboration between jurisdictions. It was suggested that this is probably understood across agencies, and that it may remain an issue and need to be codified in the final report. Chief Wojnar commented that it would be great to have support for law enforcement custody issue. Discussion ensued regarding challenges with transportation and supervision of children within police stations. Erica C. referred to research suggesting when a child is put “under arrest” it has traumatic consequences for the rest of their lives. She recommended having more money go to the community centers to support holding children in a safe environment. Erica said she is interested in looking at the language in the report on this. Tara M. wondered if there could be language that makes it known that this is a last-resort option. Chief Wojnar suggested that it varies from town to town.  Spencer L. added that there should be discretion for the police chiefs to do what they believe is best and we should document best practices to have everyone operating in a similar way. Marcia R. noted that juveniles could be chained to pipes or chairs if we do not have guidelines in place. Chief Wojnar pointed out that very few of them are handcuffed at all. Marcia R. said there is anti-shackling legislation and we need to spell out specifically what should and should not be allowed in our recommendations.

Sarah S. shared her thoughts regarding NamUs using Ohio’s approach. Sarah S. feels the house bill in committee addresses a lot of these issues and that we should support it. She touched on Billy’s law and the importance of information sharing across states and agencies. Sarah also mentioned the importance diversification of staffing that falls within CME and State Police. From her research, they contribute significantly to the resolution of these cases. Sarah noted that if you have forensic pathologists on staff there is faster response to these cases. She recommended also that we continue the Missing Persons Task Force’s work to help the House bill 2132 progress, provide testimony to the legislature, and suggest the best practices to the agencies. Chief Wojnar recommended at the very least keeping the Task Force going on an annual basis. Spencer added that if the Task Force decided that they would like to support the bill, they could coordinate messaging with the filing of the report but there has not been a lot of activity on that bill thus far. When speaking about a specific timeline, Task Force members agreed that now would be a good time to coordinate messaging on this.

Sarah S. mentioned expanding the period for active missing persons cases found.  There are 2,202 open NCIC cases with the FBI and 1,262 children under the age of 18 which is not different from before. 89% are between ages 13-17. Of active missing persons cases, 33% are under 21. 90% are between the ages of 13-20. She noted ancestry, gender, and ethnicity had not been looked at although she thinks it would be helpful to have that information. She wondered if we could do a statistical summary and believed that it would be valuable for the group to look at.

Cliff G. offered to get the information on race and ethnicity. Sarah S. mentioned that there is an active and purged spreadsheet and that she wants to note the cleared or cancelled records. Dan H. commented that the cleared and cancelled records are in the data. Dan H. mentioned that geography is also included in the ORI/county section. He also asked about unidentified persons and wondered if the police officer is responsible for entering the information or if that is someone from CME’s office. Sarah S. clarified that CME is responsible for identification unless there is another authorized user. Chief Wojnar added that it would be difficult to ascertain approximate age, etc. without accurate data from the CME’s office.

Sarah S. spoke about Oklahoma’s medical examiner system and explained that the centralized office has two forensic anthropologists responsible for entering and monitoring the data in NamUs, and following up if any identification occurs. They split the workload based on geography and their respective responsibilities.

Chair Davis asked that the members review the draft report before the next meeting and suggested an October meeting, so we reach the final report goal. It was agreed we would keep the 11:00 am for Tuesday October 15^th.  Chair updated everyone that she is working on getting Molly Bish’s family contact information to invite them to join the group. Tara M. is going to get that contact information for Angela to follow up.

There was discussion about the format of the report, followed by a motion made and passed to adjourn at 12:00pm.

1. Welcome and introductions
2. Review/approval of meeting minutes from July 23, 2019
3. Updates from S. Schoff, D. Hutchinson, C. Goodband
4. Review of committee's policy/legislative recommendations for report
5. Discussion of draft report
6. Timeline for report completion and submission
7. Open session for topics not reasonably anticipated within 48 hours of the meeting