New Iowa Law Takes Aim Against Human Trafficking and Abduction
Iowa law enforcement must be able to use every tool available to find missing persons across the state and find them fast. Especially children.
A law that has been working its way through the Iowa legislature and is now on Governor Reynolds' desk could give them yet one more tool. Iowa's News Now says the bill to allow law enforcement agencies to share driver's license photos in missing person cases with the public is ready to be signed.
Nearly 230 Iowans are currently missing
As of Wednesday, April 20, the Iowa missing person website had nearly 230 names on it, and only 73 with a photo. Unfortunately, not everyone who is missing or accused of abduction or human trafficking is going to have a driver's license photo available, but it will open the limited access law enforcement has to share those photos in hopes of shrinking that list.
It would also, ideally, play a role in reducing human trafficking
If a person is suspected of kidnapping a child, that person's driver's license photo would be shared during an Amber Alert. Iowa representative Tom Jeneary of LeMars calls Iowa one of the biggest problem states for this issue, because of Interstates 80 and 35. In fact, the human trafficking issue was an even bigger factor in working to pass this law.
Representative Jeneary says:
I hope that this can help us find some of these people that have been kidnapped and are trafficked and get them the help that they need
It could also be used to help carry out arrest warrants more easily and identify individuals who are "threats to society", according to Jeneary.
It's a proposal that Governor Reynolds is likely to sign. It would be another popular move following a recent bill that criminalized elderly abuse in Iowa, the only state where such a law did not previously exist.