Request your child’s name and identifying information
be immediately entered into the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) National Crime Information Center (NCIC) Missing
Person File. This helps ensure any law enforcement agency in the country will be able to identify your child if he or she
is found in another community.
Federal Missing Child Acts
The Missing Children Act of 1982
(28 U.S.C. § 534 (a)) enables families to guarantee information about their missing child is properly entered into the
FBI’s NCIC databases. If you have doubts about whether the law-enforcement agency taking the missing-child report has
entered your child’s information, you have the right to ask the FBI to verify the entry. If the case has not been entered,
ask the FBI to make the entry for you. You may also call the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children to verify
your child’s information was correctly entered into the NCIC databases.
The Missing Children Assistance
Act of 1984 (42 U.S.C. §§ 5771 et seq. as amended) mandates the U.S. Department of Justice (DoJ) to provide
certain services including the establishment of a toll-free telephone line to receive information about missing and sexually
exploited children and provision of assistance to families and law enforcement in the search for missing children. The National
Center for Missing & Exploited Children serves as the national clearinghouse and resource center that carries out these
mandates on behalf of DoJ with funding and program coordination provided by DoJ’s Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention.
The National Child Search Assistance Act of 1990 (Pub. L. No. 101-647) requires federal,
state, and local law enforcement to immediately enter reports of a missing child who is younger than 18 years of age and unidentified
persons into the NCIC, and work cooperatively with the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children on these difficult
cases. It also eliminates any waiting period prior to entry of this information into NCIC.
In addition the Adam
Walsh Child Protection and Safety Act of 2006 (Pub. L. No. 109-248) enhances the Missing Children Act of 1982 by
mandating entry of information must be made by law enforcement into NCIC’s Missing Person File within two hours’
receipt of a report of a missing or abducted child.
Please understand and exercise your rights as stipulated by these
Acts.
After you have reported your child missing to local law enforcement, call NCMEC’s
toll-free telephone number 1-800-THE-LOST® (1-800-843-5678). A Call
Center Specialist will take information concerning your child, a Case Manager may be able to follow-up with you and the law-enforcement
agency investigating the case, and NCMEC may be able to refer you to a support group in your community that may also help.
Adapted from
Just in Case...Missing. Copyright© 1985 National Center for Missing & Exploited Children
(NCMEC). All rights reserved.