Local advocate urges support for bill draft requiring law enforcement to accept missing persons reports

(Cheyenne, WY) – Local Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons advocate Nicole Wagon testified in favor of a legislative bill proposal last week that would require law enforcement agencies in Wyoming to accept reports of missing persons.

Currently, there is no state law in place establishing “a consistent model for accepting such reports,” Wyoming Sen. Bill Landen, R-Casper, said when he presented Senate File 114 to the Senate Judiciary Committee during a meeting last week.

As a result, he said, “in a few instances, law enforcement agencies may believe that another law enforcement entity might be the primary reporting agency and thus decline to accept the report of a missing person” because they “do not want to duplicate efforts or enter the same person multiple times in (their) databases.”

“This can lead to an unnecessary delay (and) misunderstandings with family and friends and the missing person,” Landen said. 

As an example, Wyoming Association of Sheriffs and Chiefs of Police Executive Director Allen Thompson recalled a case involving an individual who regularly crossed “a treacherous mountain road in the winter time” to get to work in a neighboring county.

When that person failed to make it home one evening, Thompson said a loved one called local law enforcement to file a missing persons report and was told “that’s a problem for the next county, you need to call them.”

The neighboring county gave the same response, Thompson said – highlighting one of “the issues that we face (when) communicating about where the appropriate place is to be the primary jurisdiction.”

“That’s why we’re having this discussion today, as one of the last states in the U.S. to have a (missing persons) protocol written into law,” Thompson explained. “Law enforcement believes they’re doing this right all the time, and then we find out sometimes we’re not.”

SF 114 provides law enforcement agencies with a “straightforward playbook” to guide their actions when they receive missing persons reports, Thompson said. 

The bill says, “each Wyoming law enforcement agency shall accept, without delay, any credible report of a missing person made to the law enforcement agency,” unless:

• the law enforcement agency knows the location of or confirms the safe status of the person reported missing 
• the law enforcement agency confirms that another agency already has, is accepting or will accept a missing person report for the person
• the person reported missing is not a resident of Wyoming and the most recent verifiable location of the person reported missing was not in Wyoming
• the person reporting the missing person is unable to articulate reasonable knowledge of the missing person or a legitimate reason for concern for the missing person
• the law enforcement agency suspects, and can articulate, that the person reported missing intended to lawfully flee or is being sought for reasons of harassment, stalking or retaliation 
• other articulable extenuating circumstances exist that would make acceptance of a report of the missing person impractical or unreasonable and the law enforcement agency documents the extenuating circumstances

SF 114 also defines which agency has primary jurisdiction over a missing persons case – but it notes that agencies without primary jurisdiction are still allowed to accept the initial missing persons report.

Once that report is completed, SF 114 says it must be entered into the relevant missing persons databases within eight hours – and if the missing person isn’t located within 30 days, the law enforcement agency that accepted the report must ensure that a complete and accurate record of information is sent to the Attorney General and the Division of Criminal Investigation for inclusion in the state’s clearinghouse database on missing persons. 

The legislation will ensure that there is a “clear and consistent response when an adult goes missing in Wyoming,” Wagon said during her testimony last week, explaining that, “right now in Wyoming, when a family reports a missing adult, the response they get depends on where they are and who they talk to.”

“(Some) law enforcement agencies act quickly, while others tell families they have to wait,” she said. “Imagine how terrifying that is: Your loved one is missing, you don’t know where to turn, and instead of immediate action, you’re met with delays and uncertainty. That’s not how this should work. … The first hours and days after someone disappears are the most critical, (so) the longer it takes to act, the harder it is, and becomes, to find them.”

The issue is “especially urgent” for Indigenous communities, where “too often missing persons cases don’t get the attention they deserve” despite the “disproportionate rate of violence and missing persons within these communities,” Wagon said.

“But this isn’t just an indigenous issue,” she noted. “It’s something that affects families across Wyoming. No one should have to navigate a confusing or inconsistent system when they’re trying to bring a loved one home.”

SF 114 would ensure that every missing persons case in Wyoming “is handled with urgency, consistency, and care,” by providing law enforcement “with clear guidelines” showing “exactly what steps to take when an adult is reported missing,” Wagon said. 

“It would also give families the reassurance that their concerns are being taken seriously and that their loved ones’ disappearance is not being dismissed,” she said. “I urge you to support this bill and help create a system that treats missing persons cases with the urgency and care that they deserve.”

The Senate Judiciary Committee approved SF 114 unanimously last week, with one senator excused from the meeting. 

It was approved by the Committee of the Whole in the Wyoming Senate on Monday, and it passed its second Senate vote on Tuesday.

The Senate will vote on SF 114 one more time before the bill draft goes to the Wyoming House of Representatives for further consideration.