2009 California Penal Code - Section 14200-14213 :: Title 12. Violent Crime Information Center

14200.  The Attorney General shall establish and maintain the
Violent Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and
the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent crimes
and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons, particularly
children and dependent adults. The center shall establish and
maintain programs which include, but are not limited to, all of the
following: developing violent offender profiles; assisting local law
enforcement agencies and county district attorneys by providing
investigative information on persons responsible for specific violent
crimes and missing person cases; providing physical description
information and photographs, if available, of missing persons to
county district attorneys, nonprofit missing persons organizations,
and schools; and providing statistics on missing dependent adults and
on missing children, including, as may be applicable, family
abductions, nonfamily abductions, voluntary missing, and lost
children or lost dependent adults.

14201.  (a) The Attorney General shall establish within the center
and shall maintain an online, automated computer system designed to
effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing
persons. The Attorney General shall design the computer system, using
any existing system, including the California Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System, to include an active file of information
concerning persons reported to it as missing and who have not been
reported as found. The computer system shall also include a
confidential historic data base. The Attorney General shall develop a
system of cataloging missing person reports according to a variety
of characteristics in order to facilitate locating particular
categories of reports as needed.
   (b) The Attorney General's active files described in subdivision
(a) shall be made available to law enforcement agencies. The Attorney
General shall provide to these agencies the name and personal
description data of the missing person including, but not limited to,
the person's date of birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height,
weight, and race, the time and date he or she was reported missing,
the reporting agency, and any other data pertinent to the purpose of
locating missing persons. However, the Attorney General shall not
release the information if the reporting agency requests the Attorney
General in writing not to release the information because it would
impair a criminal investigation.
   (c) The Attorney General shall distribute a missing children and
dependent adults bulletin on a quarterly basis to local law
enforcement agencies, district attorneys, and public schools. The
Attorney General shall also make this information accessible to other
parties involved in efforts to locate missing children and dependent
adults and to those other persons as the Attorney General deems
appropriate.
   This section shall become operative on July 1, 1989.

14201.1.  The Attorney General shall establish and maintain, upon
appropriation of funds by the Legislature, the Violent Crime
Information Network within the center to enable the Department of
Justice crime analysts with expertise in child abuse, missing
persons, child abductions, and sexual assaults to electronically
share their data, analysis, and findings on violent crime cases with
each other, and to electronically provide law enforcement agencies
with information to assist in the identification, tracking, and
apprehension of violent offenders. The Violent Crime Information
Network shall serve to integrate existing state, federal, and
civilian data bases into a single comprehensive network.

14201.5.  (a) The Attorney General shall establish within the
Department of Justice the Missing and Exploited Children's Recovery
Network by July 31, 1995.
   (b) This network shall consist of an automated computerized system
that shall have the capability to electronically transmit to all
state and local law enforcement agencies, and all cooperating news
media services, either by facsimile or computer modem, a missing
child poster that includes the name, personal description data, and
picture of the missing child. The information contained in this
poster shall include, but not be limited to, the child's date of
birth, color of eyes and hair, sex, height, weight, race, the time
and date he or she was reported missing, the reporting agency,
including contact person at reporting agency if known, and any other
data pertinent to the purpose of locating missing persons.
   (c) The Department of Justice shall work in cooperation with the
National Center for Missing and Exploited Children to develop and
implement a network that can electronically interface with the
National Missing and Exploited Children's Network.
   (d) The Attorney General shall implement this network within
existing Department of Justice resources.

14201.6.  (a) The Department of Justice shall establish and maintain
a publicly accessible computer internet directory of information
relating to the following:
   (1) Persons for whom an arrest warrant has been issued pursuant to
an alleged violation of any offense defined as a violent felony in
subdivision (c) of Section 667.5.
   (2) Critical missing children.
   (3) Unsolved homicides.
   (b) The Attorney General may determine the extent of information
and the priority of cases to be included in the directory.
   (c) The department shall keep confidential, and not enter into the
directory, either of the following:
   (1) Information regarding any case for which the Attorney General
has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section would
endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or the
successful completion of the investigation or a related
investigation.
   (2) Information regarding an arrest warrant for which the issuing
magistrate has determined that disclosure pursuant to this section
would endanger the safety of a person involved in an investigation or
the successful completion of the investigation or a related
investigation.
   (d) For purposes of this section, "critical missing child"
includes, but is not limited to, any case of a missing child for
which there is evidence or indications that the child is at risk, as
specified in subdivision (b) of Section 14213.

14202.  (a) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within
the center an investigative support unit and an automated violent
crime method of operation system to facilitate the identification and
apprehension of persons responsible for murder, kidnap, including
parental abduction, false imprisonment, or sexual assault. This unit
shall be responsible for identifying perpetrators of violent felonies
collected from the center and analyzing and comparing data on
missing persons in order to determine possible leads which could
assist local law enforcement agencies. This unit shall only release
information about active investigations by police and sheriffs'
departments to local law enforcement agencies.
   (b) The Attorney General shall make available to the investigative
support unit files organized by category of offender or victim and
shall seek information from other files as needed by the unit. This
set of files may include, among others, the following:
   (1) Missing or unidentified, deceased persons' dental files filed
pursuant to this title, Section 27521 of the Government Code, or
Section 102870 of the Health and Safety Code.
   (2) Child abuse reports filed pursuant to Section 11169.
   (3) Sex offender registration files maintained pursuant to Section
290.
   (4) State summary criminal history information maintained pursuant
to Section 11105.
   (5) Information obtained pursuant to the parent locator service
maintained pursuant to Section 11478.5 of the Welfare and
Institutions Code.
   (6) Information furnished to the Department of Justice pursuant to
Section 11107.
   (7) Other Attorney General's office files as requested by the
investigative support unit.
   This section shall become operative on July 1, 1989.

14202.1.  The Attorney General shall establish and maintain, upon
appropriation of funds by the Legislature, within the center the
Violent Crime Information System to track and monitor violent
offenders and their activities. The Violent Crime Information System
shall use computer technology to compare unsolved crime scene and
methods of operation information against the file of known violent
sexual assault, kidnapping, and homicide offenders, containing over
40,000 violent, kidnapping, and homicide offenders. The system shall
provide local law enforcement agencies with investigative leads to
assist in the resolution of violent crimes.

14202.2.  (a)  The Department of Justice, in conjunction with the
Department of Corrections, shall update any supervised release file
that is available to law enforcement on the California Law
Enforcement Telecommunications System every 10 days to reflect the
most recent inmates paroled from facilities under the jurisdiction of
the Department of Corrections.
   (b) Commencing on July 1, 2001, The Department of Justice, in
consultation with the State Department of Mental Health, shall also
update any supervised release file that is available to law
enforcement on the California Law Enforcement Telecommunications
System every 10 days to reflect patients undergoing community mental
health treatment and supervision through the Forensic Conditional
Release Program administered by the State Department of Mental
Health, other than individuals committed as incompetent to stand
trial pursuant to Chapter 6 (commencing with Section 1367) of Title
10 of Part 2.

14203.  (a) The online missing persons registry shall accept and
generate complete information on a missing person.
   (b) The information on a missing person shall be retrievable by
any of the following:
   (1) The person's name.
   (2) The person's date of birth.
   (3) The person's social security number.
   (4) Whether a dental chart has been received, coded, and entered
into the National Crime Information Center Missing Person System by
the Attorney General.
   (5) The person's physical description, including hair and eye
color and body marks.
   (6) The person's known associates.
   (7) The person's last known location.
   (8) The name or assumed name of the abductor, if applicable, other
pertinent information relating to the abductor or the assumed
abductor, or both.
   (9) Any other information, as deemed appropriate by the Attorney
General.
   (c) The Attorney General, in consultation with local law
enforcement agencies and other user groups, shall develop the form in
which information shall be entered into the system.
   (d) The Attorney General shall establish and maintain within the
center a separate, confidential historic database relating to missing
children and dependent adults. The historic database may be used
only by the center for statistical and research purposes. The
historic database shall be set up to categorize cases relating to
missing children and dependent adults by type. These types shall
include the following: runaways, voluntary missing, lost, abduction
involving movement of the victim in the commission of the crime or
sexual exploitation of the victim, nonfamily abduction, family
abduction, and any other categories as determined by the Attorney
General. In addition, the data shall include the number of missing
children and missing dependent adults in this state and the category
of each case.
   (e) The center may supply information about specific cases from
the historic database to a local police department, sheriff's
department, or district attorney, only in connection with an
investigation by the police department, sheriff's department, or
district attorney of a missing person case or a violation or
attempted violation of Section 220, 261.5, 262, 273a, 273d, or 273.5,
or any sex offense listed in Section 290, except for the offense
specified in subdivision (d) of Section 243.4.

14204.  The Attorney General shall provide training on the services
provided by the center to line personnel, supervisors, and
investigators in the following fields: law enforcement, district
attorneys' offices, the Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation,
probation departments, court mediation services, and the judiciary.

14205.  (a) All local police and sheriffs' departments shall accept
any report, including any telephonic report, of a missing person,
including runaways, without delay and shall give priority to the
handling of these reports over the handling of reports relating to
crimes involving property. In cases where the person making a report
of a missing person or runaway, contacts, including by telephone, the
California Highway Patrol, the California Highway Patrol may take
the report, and shall immediately advise the person making the report
of the name and telephone number of the police or sheriff's
department having jurisdiction of the residence address of the
missing person and of the name and telephone number of the police or
sheriff's department having jurisdiction of the place where the
person was last seen. In cases of reports involving missing persons,
including, but not limited to, runaways, the local police or sheriff'
s department shall immediately take the report and make an assessment
of reasonable steps to be taken to locate the person. If the missing
person is under 16 years of age, or there is evidence that the
person is at risk, the department shall broadcast a "Be On the
Look-Out" bulletin, without delay, within its jurisdiction.
   (b) If the person reported missing is under 16 years of age, or if
there is evidence that the person is at risk, the local police,
sheriff's department, or the California Highway Patrol shall submit
the report to the Attorney General's office within four hours after
accepting the report. After the California Law Enforcement
Telecommunications System online missing person registry becomes
operational, the reports shall be submitted, within four hours after
accepting the report, to the Attorney General's office through the
use of the California Telecommunications System.
   (c) In cases where the report is taken by a department, other than
that of the city or county of residence of the missing person or
runaway, the department, or division of the California Highway Patrol
taking the report shall, without delay, and, in the case of children
under 16 years of age or where there was evidence that the missing
person was at risk, within no more than 24 hours, notify, and forward
a copy of the report to the police or sheriff's department or
departments having jurisdiction of the residence address of the
missing person or runaway and of the place where the person was last
seen. The report shall also be submitted by the department or
division of the California Highway Patrol which took the report to
the center.
   (d) The requirements imposed by this section on local police and
sheriff's departments shall not be operative if the governing body of
that local agency, by a majority vote of the members of that body,
adopts a resolution expressly making those requirements inoperative.

14206.  (a) (1) When any person makes a report of a missing person
to a police department, sheriff's department, district attorney's
office, California Highway Patrol, or other law enforcement agency,
the report shall be given in person or by mail in a format acceptable
to the Attorney General. That form shall include a statement
authorizing the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, of
the person reported missing and authorizing the release of a recent
photograph of a person reported missing who is under 18 years of age.
Included with the form shall be instructions which state that if the
person reported missing is still missing 30 days after the report is
made, the release form signed by a member of the family or next of
kin of the missing person shall be taken by the family member or next
of kin to the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility in
order to obtain the release of the dental or skeletal X-rays, or
both, of that person or may be taken by a peace officer, if others
fail to take action, to secure those X-rays. Notwithstanding any
other provision of law, dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, shall be
released by the dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility
to the person presenting the request and shall be submitted within 10
days by that person to the police or sheriff's department or other
law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the investigation.
When the person reported missing has not been found within 30 days
and no family or next of kin exists or can be located, the law
enforcement agency may execute a written declaration, stating that an
active investigation seeking the location of the missing person is
being conducted, and that the dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, are
necessary for the exclusive purpose of furthering the investigation.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the written declaration,
signed by a peace officer, is sufficient authority for the dentist,
physician and surgeon, or medical facility to release the missing
person's dental or skeletal X-rays, or both.
   (2) The form provided under this subdivision shall also state that
if the person reported missing is under 18 years of age, the
completed form shall be taken to the dentist, physician and surgeon,
or medical facility immediately when the law enforcement agency
determines that the disappearance involves evidence that the person
is at risk or when the law enforcement agency determines that the
person missing is under 16 years of age and has been missing at least
14 days. The form shall further provide that the dental or skeletal
X-rays, or both, and a recent photograph of the missing child shall
be submitted immediately to the law enforcement agency. Whenever
authorized under this subdivision to execute a written declaration to
obtain the release of dental or skeletal X-rays, or both, is
provided, the investigating law enforcement agency may obtain those
X-rays when a person reported missing is under 18 years of age and
the law enforcement agency determines that the disappearance involves
evidence that the person is at risk. In each case, the law
enforcement agency may confer immediately with the coroner or medical
examiners and may submit its report including the dental or skeletal
X-rays, or both, within 24 hours thereafter to the Attorney General.
The Attorney General's office shall code and enter the dental or
skeletal X-rays, or both, into the center.
   (b) When a person reported missing has not been found within 45
days, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law enforcement agency
conducting the investigation for the missing person may confer with
the coroner or medical examiner prior to the preparation of a missing
person report. The coroner or medical examiner shall cooperate with
the law enforcement agency. After conferring with the coroner or
medical examiner, the sheriff, chief of police, or other law
enforcement agency initiating and conducting the investigation for
the missing person may submit a missing person report and the dental
or skeletal X-rays, or both, and photograph received pursuant to
subdivision (a) to the Attorney General's office in a format
acceptable to the Attorney General.
   (c) Nothing in this section prohibits a parent or guardian of a
child, reported to a law enforcement agency as missing, from
voluntarily submitting fingerprints, and other documents, to the law
enforcement agency accepting the report for inclusion in the report
which is submitted to the Attorney General.
   (d) The requirements imposed by this section on local police and
sheriff's departments shall not be operative if the governing body of
that local agency, by a majority vote of the members of that body,
adopts a resolution expressly making those requirements inoperative.

14207.  (a) When a person reported missing has been found, the
sheriff, chief of police, coroner or medical examiner, or the law
enforcement agency locating the missing person shall immediately
report that information to the Attorney General's office.
   (b) When a child under 12 years of age or a missing person, where
there was evidence that the person was at risk, is found, the report
indicating that the person is found shall be made not later than 24
hours after the person is found. A report shall also be made to the
law enforcement agency that made the initial missing person report.
The Attorney General's office shall then notify the National Crime
Information Center that the missing person has been found.
   (c) In the event that a missing person is found alive or dead in
less than 24 hours and the local police or sheriff's department has
reason to believe that the person had been abducted, the department
shall submit a report to the center in a format established by the
Attorney General. In the event that a missing person has been found
before he or she has been reported missing to the center, the
information related to the incident shall be submitted to the center.

14208.  (a) The Department of Justice shall operate a statewide,
toll-free telephone hotline 24 hours per day, seven days per week to
receive information regarding missing children and dependent adults
and relay this information to the appropriate law enforcement
authorities.
   (b) The Department of Justice shall select up to six children per
month from the missing children registry maintained pursuant to
former Section 11114 or pursuant to the system maintained pursuant to
Sections 14201 and 14202 and shall produce posters with photographs
and information regarding these children, including the missing
children hotline telephone number and reward information. The
department shall make these posters available to parties as
prescribed and as the department deems appropriate.

14209.  (a) The Department of Justice shall provide appropriate
local reporting agencies with a list of persons still listed as
missing who are under 18 years of age, with an appropriate waiver
form in order to assist the reporting agency in obtaining a
photograph of each of the missing children.
   (b) Local reporting agencies shall attempt to obtain the most
recent photograph available for persons still listed as missing and
forward those photographs to the Department of Justice.
   (c) The department shall include these photographs, as they become
available, in the quarterly bulletins pursuant to subdivision (c) of
Section 14201.
   (d) State and local elected officials, agencies, departments,
boards, and commissions may enclose in their mailings information
regarding missing children or dependent adults obtainable from the
Department of Justice or any organization that is recognized as a
nonprofit, tax-exempt organization under state or federal law and
that has an ongoing missing children program. Elected officials,
agency secretaries, and directors of departments, boards, and
commissions are urged to develop policies to enclose missing children
or dependent adults information in mailings when it will not
increase postage costs, and is otherwise deemed appropriate.

14210.  (a) The Legislature finds and declares that it is the duty
of all law enforcement agencies to immediately assist any person who
is attempting to make a report of a missing person or runaway.
   (b) The Department of the California Highway Patrol shall continue
to implement the written policy, required to be developed and
adopted pursuant to former Section 11114.3, for the coordination of
each of its divisions with the police and sheriffs' departments
located within each division in taking, transmitting, and
investigating reports of missing persons, including runaways.

14213.  (a) As used in this title, "missing person" includes, but is
not limited to, a child who has been taken, detained, concealed,
enticed away, or retained by a parent in violation of Chapter 4
(commencing with Section 277) of Title 9 of Part 1. It also includes
any child who is missing voluntarily or involuntarily, or under
circumstances not conforming to his or her ordinary habits or
behavior and who may be in need of assistance.
   (b) As used in this title, "evidence that the person is at risk"
includes, but is not limited to, evidence or indications of any of
the following:
   (1) The person missing is the victim of a crime or foul play.
   (2) The person missing is in need of medical attention.
   (3) The person missing has no pattern of running away or
disappearing.
   (4) The person missing may be the victim of parental abduction.
   (5) The person missing is mentally impaired.
   (c) As used in this title, "child" is any person under the age of
18.
   (d) As used in this title, "center" means the Violent Crime
Information Center.
   (e) As used in this title, "dependent adult" is any person
described in subdivision (e) of Section 368.
   (f) As used in this title, "dental or medical records or X-rays,"
include all those records or X-rays which are in the possession of a
dentist, physician and surgeon, or medical facility.