Supporting the recovery of missing persons.

The bill was renumbered from S-4059.2 to S-4938.1 and updated to reflect a second substitute version.

The committee handling the bill changed from Senate Law & Justice to Senate Ways & Means, and the first reading date was updated to February 9, 2026.

Confidentiality rules for missing endangered person investigations were expanded to include 'privacy' as a protected interest and now require consultation with the missing person before determining that disclosure would not impact their safety.

The entity responsible for creating and maintaining the statewide missing persons website changed from the Washington association of sheriffs and police chiefs to the Washington state patrol.

The requirement for the missing persons website to post information was changed from mandatory to discretionary, allowing the state patrol to decide what information to include.

Eligibility for using surveillance devices (pen registers, trap and trace devices, and cell site simulators) was expanded to include situations where law enforcement is fulfilling community caretaking functions, not just ongoing criminal investigations.

The deadline for law enforcement to obtain a court order after using emergency surveillance devices was tightened from 'forty-eight hours' to exactly '48 hours' to reduce ambiguity.

New requirements mandate the creation of a statewide missing persons website by the Washington State Patrol and the transmission of missing person data to the national missing and unidentified persons system.

New provisions allow law enforcement officers and immigration officials to request current addresses and locations of public welfare recipients to determine if a missing person is alive or a fugitive.

The bill now includes a section to recodify existing statutes regarding public welfare and immigration data sharing into a new chapter of the Revised Code of Washington.