California has created a new statewide alert system to help find missing Black children and young Black women. The Ebony Alert is the first of its kind in the nation.
The alert system will be activated when law enforcement believes a Black child or young Black woman is missing and in danger.
The alert will be sent out to all media outlets in the state, as well as displayed on electronic highway signs.
The Senate Bill 673, was signed into law by Governor Gavin Newsom on Monday.
The Ebony Alert system is similar to the Amber Alert system, which is used to find missing children.
However, the Ebony Alert is designed to specifically target Black children and young Black women, who are more likely to be victims of human trafficking and other crimes.
When a law enforcement agency believes that a Black child or young Black woman is missing and in danger, the Ebony Alert will be activated.
The alert will be sent to all media outlets in the state, and it will also be displayed on electronic highway signs.
The alert will include information about the missing person, such as their name, age, description, and last known location.
It will also include a contact number for the law enforcement agency investigating the case. The law will go into effect from January 1.
The bill states: “This bill would authorize a law enforcement agency to request the Department of the California Highway Patrol to activate an “Ebony Alert,” with respect to Black youth, including young women and girls, who are reported missing under unexplained or suspicious circumstances, at risk, developmentally disabled, or cognitively impaired, or who have been abducted.
“The bill would authorize the department to activate an Ebony Alert within the appropriate geographical area requested by the investigating law enforcement agency and to assist the agency by disseminating specified alert messages and signs, if the department concurs with the agency that an Ebony Alert would be an effective tool in the investigation of a missing person according to specified factors. The bill would also make related legislative findings and declarations,” it adds.
In 2022, over 141,000 Black children under the age of 18 went missing, and Black women over 21 accounted for nearly 16,500 missing persons cases. More than 30,000 Black people in the U.S. remained missing at the end of 2022.
Although Black people make up about 38% of the people who went missing in 2022, their stories are less likely to be highlighted in the media. Additionally, missing person cases for Black people remain open longer than those for white people.
State Sen. Steven Bradford, a Democrat and creator of the legislation, told NBC News earlier this year, “Data shows that Black and brown, our indigenous brothers and sisters, when they go missing there’s very rarely the type of media attention, let alone AMBER alerts and police resources that we see with our white counterparts.”
This new initiative will help to prevent human trafficking and will serve as a reminder that black children and women deserve the same level of attention and resources when they go missing as anyone else.
Comments
All Comments (0)
Join the conversation