Why you’re seeing more missing child flyers on social media in Arizona

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — You may have been noticing more police departments posting flyers about missing children on social media.

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It’s not by accident, and it’s not because more kids are going missing around Arizona. It’s part of a new law that went into effect earlier in September.

updated reporting requirements for all kidnapped or missing children. Rhonda Dequier, Founder and Executive Director of the Missing in America Network, helped push for the bill.

“We can’t look for children if we don’t know what they look like. So that’s where it started,” Dequier said.

What the flyers include

The law is changing how law enforcement agencies share information about missing children, requiring departments to post flyers on social media within 24 hours of taking a report.

Here’s what must be included:

• Complete physical description of the child
• Last known location
• Clothing description
• Law enforcement agency phone number
• Current photo of child (if available)

The law also states that agencies can’t label a child as a “runaway” unless it’s necessary for the active investigation or the child’s safety.

“Regardless of why the child went missing, they’re still a child. And so they’re still in danger when they’re not under the purview of their parents,” Dequier said.

Phoenix Police takes around 200 missing child reports per month on average, according to Sgt. John Buchanan.

“I like to say is, this law kind of brings us into the 21st century, right? It just enables us to leverage the use of social media a little bit more,” Buchanan says. “It’s a missing juvenile. This is a person under the age of 18 who is currently unaccounted for. Nobody knows where they are. So we try to treat every single one with kind of a certain level of gravity,” Buchanan said.

Previously, Buchanan said Phoenix Police would post flyers to social media when a case had a certain level of urgency, but not for every reported missing child.

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“I completely understand the impetus of the law,” Tony Turnbull said.

Turnbull, who spent decades in law enforcement in California and now works as an expert consultant in law enforcement, said he could see some downsides to the law though.

He said going public with every case could compromise some investigations and could also drain agencies’ resources.

“I think the information overload, the oversaturation of information could be problematic at times too,” Turnbull said.

Dequier said she heard those concerns during the bill negotiation process, but has faith the law will become a powerful tool.

“I don’t think that we’re going to get oversaturated. I think that people are going to recognize what a big problem this is. People are going to see it and people are going to be able to act,” Dequier said.

The law also strengthens and adds new reporting deadlines in addition to the social media component.

In addition to submitting information to the Arizona Crime Information Center and national databases, departments must submit a recent photo (if available) and descriptive information to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children within 24 hours, and complete training on these new reporting standards.

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