This article was behind a paywall, but I was able to view it by canceling my (for some reason, I am not able to post the term describing the device that blocks advertisements.)
Missing Fruitland boy's case sparks pending legislation
Excerpts from a longer article:
BOISE — When 5-year-old Michael Vaughan went missing from Fruitland in July, authorities didn’t issue an Amber Alert. Nearly eight months later, he still hasn’t been found.
Now, pending Idaho Senate legislation is working to develop an alert that would help if a similar instance takes place again.
When Brandi Neal, Vaughan’s mother, heard SB 1378 was moving through the legislature, she said she was in tears.
“I want everybody to contact their representatives (to pass the bill), because what if this happened to one of their family members?” Neal said. “What if this happened to their baby?”
The bill unanimously passed the House Judiciary committee on Monday, with a “do-pass” recommendation for the House.
SB 1378, which would initiate an Endangered Missing Persons Alert in the state, was introduced in the Senate on March 17 by Sen. Abby Lee, R-Fruitland.
As Lee stood on the Senate floor that day, she described the shock her community went through when Vaughan went missing from his neighborhood on July 27, 2021.
“It shook our community and I think it shook our state,” she told the Senate. “We quickly realized that his case did not qualify for an Amber Alert.”
********************************
According to Lee and her co-sponsor for the bill, Rep. Ryan Kerby, R-New Plymouth, every state in the Northwest has an Endangered Missing Persons Alert except for Idaho. The state has a “code red” alert, a type of emergency notification that was sent out when Vaughan disappeared. However, community members must be signed up to receive it on their phones — which is why some may have not have known about his disappearance until much later.
The new bill would allow Amber Alerts to stand alone, while discarding some of the other alert systems to consolidate a missing or endangered person alert into one Endangered Missing Persons Alert system.
Kerby said in committee that the bill would create a centralized communication system.
The new system, if implemented, would allow Idaho to communicate with surrounding states that also use the system in case a missing person were to cross state lines.
*******************************