[pct-l] reporting lost hiker

[awitham at postnetburney.net (Andrew Witham)]

For lots of information regarding reporting missing persons in California,
see the definitive guide on the Attorney Generals web site at
http://ag.ca.gov/missing/ .   Here you can actually search to see if someone
is actually listed as missing.  For instance John Donovan is still listed as
missing at http://dojapp.doj.ca.gov/missing/detail.asp?FCN=4090514200675 

Note paragraph three on the home page of the website;

"There is NO waiting period for reporting a person missing. All California
police and sheriffs' departments must accept any report, including a report
by telephone, of a missing person, including runaways, without delay and
will give priority to the handling of the report."

If an official refused to take your report, and told you to make the report
somewhere else they are in violation of state law. Period!

If you make a missing person report ask for the FCN number (NOT the case
number) as this is the national reference for the report.  An FCN number
will be issued as soon as the report is filed with the DOJ via CLETS
(California Law Enforcement Telecommunications System).  From memory, this
must be done within 2 hours for a juvenile and 8 hours for an adult.

Note - this is California law, other states may have differing requirements.
Anyone else have experience to comment on Oregon & Washington statutes
regarding missing person reports?

Drew



-----Original Message-----
From: pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net
[mailto:pct-l-bounces@mailman.backcountry.net] On Behalf Of Jeff Moorehead
Sent: Saturday, October 22, 2005 4:27 PM
To: pct-l@mailman.backcountry.net
Subject: Re: [pct-l] reporting lost hiker

I was once tried to enact  a missing person report and was referred to the 
sherriff in the town where she lived, not where she went missing (they said 
this was the only way to get the ball rolling).
 [snip]




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