Currently, there are several thousand children in the CPS system who can not be located. Per DFPS definition, that means no address or parent has moved. During Colton's short life, on at least two separate occasions, CPS could not locate his mother, Meagan Work. Her boyfriend Michael Turner is also listed in the CPS reports.
During that time, both Meagan and Michael were pulled over. On several occasions (per police records) local law enforcement were contacted but because of jurisdictional laws, were unable to pursue a search for them.
Colton's Law would mandate state law enforcement step in to search in cases where the child can not be located and in danger (also know as Priority 1) - bypassing local jurisdiction. Once the child is found - it would then go back to local CPS. Colton's Law would also mandate that the children and adults involved in the case be added to: TCIC/NCIC (Texas criminal information center and National information center) databases.
If someone involved in the case gets pulled over - and the child is not locatable - having the people involved in the database, would allow another avenue for law enforcement to find them.
There was an open CPS case against Meagan - where they could not find her but she met with her probation officer. If she would have been in the database, CPS would have been able to find her because her name would have been flagged.
In addition to the CPS investigation, currently it is CPS' policy to refer any case of abuse to local law enforcement (current family code is at the bottom of the email). We know - per CPS that there were at least 6 cases turned over. Only one police department followed up. It is not mandated.
Colton's Law could change all of the above. If Colton's Law were in place when Colton was alive - State Law Enforcement would have found him. And because Meagan and Mike were pulled over several times - they would have been flagged and law enforcement would have seen the open cases of abuse
