Legislation introduced into the Alaska State Senate aims to make it easier to find Alaskans who are reported to be missing. Republican State Senator Click Bishop of Fairbanks introduced Senate Bill 63 last week, which aims to allow family members or friends to view records of missing persons, including bank accounts and phone records.
Those permissions would only be granted on a temporary, limited basis – no longer than 30 days.
The idea is to give loved ones more information that could offer investigators more clues about someone’s disappearance. At least eleven Alaskans were reported missing in the last year alone.
If the bill becomes law, courts would require the results of “a reasonably diligent search made by the petitioner for the individual” to officially declare that person to be missing.