Representative Ritter Provides Sponsor Testimony on FIND Act

State Representatives Kevin Ritter (R-Marietta) and Christine Cockley (D-Columbus) this week provided sponsor testimony on House Bill 217 in the House Public Safety Committee. Rep. Ritter and Rep. Cockley are jointly sponsoring the legislation. 

House Bill 217 – also known as the Finding and Identifying with NamUs Data (FIND) Act – requires law enforcement to enter information from a missing child report into the NamUs database if a missing child is not located within 30 days after receiving the report.

“Too often, when children go missing in this country, they vanish across state lines and they become hard to locate,” said Rep. Ritter in his testimony to the committee. “The bill Representative Cockley and I have drafted, should it become law, will help reunite those missing children with their families.”

“This bill ensures that our investigators are working with the most complete information, and that families and loved ones are given a greater public voice in the search process,” said Rep. Cockley in her testimony to the committee. “The FIND Act empowers law enforcement with a powerful tool, while ensuring families get the support they need and deserve in the most difficult moments of their lives.”

The goal of the FIND Act is to further integrate the existing law enforcement missing persons reporting system(s) with the only national repository for missing, unidentified, and unclaimed persons cases. According to committee testimony, the National Missing and Unidentified persons System (known as NamUs) was created in 2003 by experts at the Nations Institute of Justice. It is currently used in 16 states, and it has led to the location and identification of hundreds of living and deceased persons. 

The FIND Act will ensure that Ohio’s law enforcement agencies participate in the system so they can have another resource at their disposal to help resolve cases involving missing and unidentified persons.

“It is time to act. It is time to pass this important legislation so that we can begin to reunite families with their missing members and begin to give closure to families who have none,” said Rep. Ritter. 

Watch the testimony in committee here. 

The bill continues to be vetted in the House Public Safety Committee.