Missing or unidentified persons.

Existing law requires the Attorney General to 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. Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish within the center and to maintain an online, automated computer system designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing persons, and requires the center to make information authorized for dissemination that is contained in law enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified persons accessible to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. This bill would require a general acute care hospital and an acute psychiatric hospital, when feasible, to report to law enforcement, within 5 business days after a patient's admission, if the hospital does not know the identity of the patient and the patient is unable to identify themselves and an emergency contact due to a medical or psychiatric condition. The bill would require law enforcement to attempt to identify the patient using available law enforcement resources, including taking the patient's fingerprints and search the National Crime Information Center database, the National Institute of Justice National Missing and Unidentified Persons System database, and, if the patient appears to be fewer than 21 years of age, the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children database. The bill would require a law enforcement agency, if able to identify the patient, to provide the hospital with the patient's identity or an emergency contact person, as defined. By placing additional duties on local law enforcement agencies, this bill would impose a state-mandated local program. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that, if the Commission on State Mandates determines that the bill contains costs mandated by the state, reimbursement for those costs shall be made pursuant to the statutory provisions noted above.