they will discuss a problem missing persons in this country and mechanisms that have been established and which can be strengthened so the not only law enforcement also private citizens can do more to find those who go missing every year tens of thousands of americans are going missing and are never found by their loved ones this is a staggering statistic but each of these statistics is more than a mere number they're real people with real problems and each on solved missing case is a tragedy with us today to tell us about one such cases esky whose son billy went missing in two thousand and four and has not been found her ordeal represents one of the many thousands and gives us an idea of what a family goes through to find a missing loved one fortunately for us she has user experience to help others by trying to make available more information about missing persons to both law enforcement and of the families and friends of those who are missing important law enforcement to have all of the procrit information about the missing person so they can c has for many years contain databases for missing persons and for dinner five remains of persons these databases contain information submitted to submitted by federal state and local law enforcement agencies the miss missing persons file is comprised of entries for missing individuals listed various listing various personal characteristics such as name gender race and dental records the unidentified person mainly consists of descriptive persons and the link the missing persons with remains that were initially on identify they were not open to the public's use of assisting private efforts in finding missing persons because of this restriction the justice department's national institute of justice established similar databases but open to the public in one to two thousand and seven this new system is called now i must and i am capital u s and similarly consists of two databases one for missing persons  five remains information in is available and searchable online by anyone most notably the families of missing persons and a son circumstances a product may even contribute information to the program to make it even more comprehensive today will discuss a bill that has been introduced to reinforce these databases and i look forward to hearing from our two panels of witnesses on how h r thirty six will strengthen these databases and encourage submission of more information to them priorities i look forward to learning more about what can be done to utilize technology and funds to track missing persons in the dental found known and on the didn't file remains every year tens of thousands of americans go missing never to be seen by their loved ones again in two thousand and nine there were more than one hundred thousand missing persons records active in the f b i national crime information center database simultaneously medical examiners and coroners offices across the country holding tens unidentified remains this means that medical examiners coroner's offices are not recording in the n c i c database many of the ana defied remains they hold in consequence lee it is likely that many missing person cases remain open for failure to connect the missing person profiles with done and then a five remains being held certainly this disconnect between missing person cases and ana densified reminds should be resolved dish only modern concerns by increasing funding for a national online repository reporting system called nine miss the national missing in a den of five parts and system the goal is to have corners medical examiners law enforcement agencies need the public all reporting information and getting information from once and centralized website nameless presently there are many federal state local and nonprofit databases designed to help but these databases are not sufficiently accessible and they do not do a good job of sharing information monks each other there is a great need for coordination among these databases and agencies for this reason nine this was established by their partner justice in two thousand and seven percent of president bush's d n a initiative provide two databases one for missing persons and one for on a den of five remains nameless enables the public to access searching contribute toward these databases it also enables medical examiners and corners to link their information on a  remains with federal and state law enforcement and information on missing persons so long as medical examiners corners and law enforcement have enough funding and technology to regularly utilize nameless and shares information the f database to encourage medical examiners corners and all foresman agencies to regular use nine billie's law provides the attorney general's incentive to grant programs for medical examiners and corners permissible uses of the funds reporting sharing and analyzing information but i want to be careful and ensure that funds are used wisely welcome the witnesses here today for your being here appreciate the testimony we received written testimony  i'm going to have to leave the hearing early but i have been reviewed reviewed last not the written testimony and extremely interested as a former district judge as my friend congressman poe from  this function goes on in judiciary committee so this is a special subcommittee you got a veteran trial lawyer is the chairman and you got two judges just in case we lawyers and so between polo and gomer this is the perfect place for the subject matter to come in the last thing to know is that procedurally we describe the bill explain it so that there's nothing for the author to do by the time we spend there everybody has heard the bill described repeatedly and that makes their testimony hopefully even briefer than it congressman ted poe who have introduced h r thirty six ninety five the bill we're discussing the day congressman murphy represents the fifth district of connecticut the home of police and lecky he is in a second term and is a member of the energy and commerce committee and the attempt to to keep this is short as possible first i'd like to thank the subcommittee ranking member gohmert in the full committee and the leadership of chairman conyers for their prompt attention to this matter i know seriously you take this and that's evidenced by the fact that we are here today not very long after the introduction of this legislation the picture i have to paint for you today is admittedly ram as has been mentioned every year thousands of americans go missing often never be seen by their loved ones again in fact as we've heard there are over one hundred thousand unsolved missing persons cases open at any given time and there are approximately forty four hundred unidentified human remains found on an average year those numbers are too high but just as intolerable are the roadblocks that family members are facing when trying to help law enforcement find a missing loved one this legislation is named after a similar scale of waterbury connecticut he went missing on iraq to me august twenty fourth two thousand and four at the age of thirty one let billy's mother jan share her family's experience with you today this molinsky story is tragic but their family's pursuit of justice and their desire to change the system for the better is nothing less than heroic you'll hear their story straight from jim but i can tell you this no one should ever have to face the systematic failures the frustrations and the heartbreak that the smolensk and thousands of other families have endured in their search to find their loved ones h r thirty six ninety five which i am proud to introduce with really congress leading champion on the issue of missing persons congressman ted poe tackles three major problems with our nation's missing persons system first many law enforcement agencies medical examiners and corners they don't have the resources to report missing adults and identified remains in fact according to the bureau of justice is the six senses they took of these officials eighty percent of those surveyed reported rarely or never using the existing unidentified remains database second there really is no central database to report both missing persons and unidentified remains instead there are a myriad of unconnected federal and state and local and nonprofit databases this means that a missing persons report may be entered into one database well a person's remains may be listed in another making it almost impossible for family members to try to connect those missing pieces third many local law enforcement personnel that just don't know about these databases or how to best handle these cases when they come into law enforcement in the first place billy's law addresses these three problems first the legislation provides for the first time statutory authorization for the national missing and unidentified persons system known as mr scott said as a name of the web based at a base that was created in july two thousand and seven by the department of justice the only federal missing persons and unidentified remains that a base that the public can access and contribute to and yet it's currently not a congressionally authorized program second the bill connects this database the public data base name is with the i existing databases accessible just to law enforcement this will create a more comprehensive database and streamline the reporting processes third it creates a competitive grants program to incentivize reporting to this new connected database funds could be used to develop an implement training on how to best use the databases and respond to these cases finally the legislation requires the department of justice to issue information about the databases and best practices for responding to these cases we'll hear from the smolinski is part of the problem is that many local law enforcement agencies don't really know how to best interact with families coming forward with these potential missing persons cases believes was supported by twenty one bipartisan co sponsors and a host of organizations including the national center for missing and exploited children the organization of police associations and the national association of medical examiners most important it's supported by countless families throughout the country who have hit brick wall after brick wall in attempting to locate a missing loved one i am so grateful for your prompt enthusiastic response to the introduction of this legislation its passage will fulfill the wishes of the smolensky and thousands of other families who want to make sure that their personal nightmares are never repeated i think you know i look forward to colleague congressman chris murphy from connecticut for taking up this cause and asking me hit me to work with him but i also would like to thank this polanski's for being here and sharing this story and moving forward to this legislation so that it will be presented before congress we should always remember that during the criminal justice system one of the them is becomes a victim of crime the system sometimes continues to victimize the families of that victim  such way is the fact that many times victims have no idea of what has happened or the victims families have no idea what has happened to their loved ones and that calls for us to strike and quite a bit of heartache in this not knowing so our system our justice system must seek justice not only for defendants of crime but for victims and their families as well to have the scales of justice totally balanced this legislation authorizes funding for the national person system which will serve as a unique database that can be searched and cross referenced database was created by the department of justice in two thousand and seven and loved ones of the missing can add information to profiles in that database making those databases stronger this system will allow federal state and local law enforcement officers to more quickly locate information about missing persons and they will them to also solve carnes much faster having served as a chief felony prosecutor in houston texas for eight years in a felony court judge for twenty two years i know firsthand the toll that violent crime it puts on family members and friends they go through a lot of stress and heartache and a person that has lost a loved one to balik crime is forced to bear a terrible burden burden this burden is made worse when the family is not able to determine exactly what has happened to the loved one and families have to wait for me the months or years or forever until they can find final disclosure brave men and women of our local police forces do everything they can within their power this legislation however will make their ability to work together with the victims families much easier  shortly after i was elected to congress the start of the victims rights caucus in this caucus supports legislation for policies that will help victims of crime in the united states this legislation is such a bill and the members of the victims rights caucus will support this legislation we must remember however that violent crime is not the only reason adult might go missing a physical developmental disability such as alzheimers disease or dementia may cause an adult to go missing also after a catastrophic disasters in our country many people go missing such occurred in hurricane rita in my congressional district where many families were separated and it took days weeks and sometimes months to find the family members because of the database problem that we currently face so today we have a mixture of federal state and local and nonprofit databases that can be used to help identify remains however we must go through each one of these or a family must go to each one of these entities to find all of the information so it's important that we make it much easier to have one central database and this legislation authorizes that one central database and name us and  i would like to submit the rest of my statement for the record and once again i want to thank congressman chris murphy from connecticut and this polanski's for pushing this legislation and the chairman for bringing such a quick hearing control any questions thank you thank you very much who now have our second panel appreciate the testimony from our colleagues as our next panel is coming forward they'll be introduced first witness in the second panel will be janice smolensky she lives in cheshire connecticut and mr murphy's district she and her husband of thirty nine years william sr raise two children billy and paula and a small farm on august twenty fourth two thousand and four and i have changed forever when billy went missing a day age of thirty one in our search for our son she encountered many problems a person with missing person system and she has dedicated her life not only to finding her son but also helping others in similar situations that you ations our second witness will be christina rose acting director of the national institute of justice she oversees research development and evaluation of department of the department of justice she is also responsible for agency wide special projects and initiatives that cut across both social and physical sciences she was the senior previously senior advisor to the director of providing advice and guidance on criminal justice policy and management and a final witness will be the f b i deputy assistant director steven morris he has been with the f b i for more than twenty one years working in field offices in el paso dayton and houston as the chief of programs support section he was assigned to the criminal justice information services division and managed the f b i uniform crime reporting and law enforcement online programs to the thousand eight he was appointed deputy assistant director of the policy administrative and branch so we'll begin  with a microphone on thank you thank you for having the courage to tackle the tragic disconnect in our country's effort to find missing americans to help find the missing act has been named billy's law  honor of our son who went missing five years ago it is my husband bill and my greatest efford hope that legislation so well crafted by representatives murphy and paul will be signed into law in order to help bring  peace to the thousands of families wrestling with the horror of having a loved one go missing we hope that sharing our family's story can shed light on this national nightmare and illustrate the urgent need to pass billy's law with over  hundred thousand people missing in this country our family's story is not a unique one our son's name is william smolensky jr and his whole life we called him billy he was funny and a bit of a g always trying to surprise us with a joke or a trick billy was a hard worker who drove or told drug owned a small house in the south end of waterbury and loved his three year old german shepherd harley everything changed on august twenty fourth two thousand and four when billy vanished at the age of thirty one in our search to find our son we encountered a pandora's box and when we opened it we unleashed the nightmare plague in the world of the missing and the on identify dead our nightmare began when a neighbor called to say that billy had left his dog instead and locked inside his house billy's truck was parked oddly in the driveway in a spot he had never used before we are very close family and we knew something had happened we called the police and they told us to wait three days to see of billy showed up and if he didn't the  missing persons report awaiting the three days we filed the report and expected the police to launch an aggressive investigation when the police did nothing we organized our own search with friends and family we even hired a private investigator as the days passed we knew something terrible had happened to our son yet we still couldn't get the attention of the local police department they dismissed billy as a walk away case the police were not only slow to respond with they also didn't report properly report the case it took four years for a report to be correctly filed with the national crime information center moreover not only did they lose seven separate d n a samples but they also didn't know about the national d n a index system in fact it wasn't until the f b i took over the investigation two years after billy vanished that the proper reports and d n a samples were collected and filed eventually we uncovered information that led us to believe billie had been murdered in woodbridge and varied in seymour the only person who has ever been arrested in this case is me when we tried to hang missing persons fliers on telephone poles in woodbridge the police arrested me the charge was later dropped so much time has passed we still haven't been able to find justice for our billy we have tried to change the system so no family would have to endure the anguish that we have lived through reform has begun in waterbury and in many other police departments in connecticut with h r three six nine five we have the opportunity to make changes nationwide with the incentive grant program created in the bill police training can finally catch up to modern technology while emphasizing sensitivity protocols police want to have better resources to solve missing persons cases and billy's law will help them with that authorizing neme h will help empower family members to search for their missing loved ones as you can tell looking for your missing loved one becomes a full time job it consumes you you  continually calling the police knock on doors make phone calls visit the media make flyers create websites network speak up and check on information entered into databases to make sure it was created correctly name is makes this process easier as you can both enter information yourself and search the database moreover the connected n c i c name is database that that legislation creates increases the chances of finding answers uncertainty is a cancer that crushes this ferret of loved ones left behind destroys marriages and tears at the tissue a family bond the stress of having a missing loved one turns some to substance abuse creates health problems and drives people into bankruptcy unless there is some form of resolution the heartache never truly goes away this legislation is long overdue and the missing community applauds his efforts this act is named after my son but it's not mr chairman ranking member gohmert and members of the subcommittee i'm pleased to have this opportunity to discuss the department of justice is missing in an identified person system otherwise known as name is to a into a for our strong support for h r thirty six ninety five or beliefs law we commend cost congressman murphy and congressman poe for sponsoring billy's law and we thank the subcommittee for their interest in amos i am especially molinsky for her courageous efforts to raise an awareness of the need to report and share information about missing persons my name is christina rose and i'm the acting director of the national institute of justice i'm proud to be here with stephen morris he and his colleagues at the f b i have been valuable partners in supporting state and local efforts to find and share information about missing and on and identified persons we established name is to respond to an overwhelming need for a central reporting system for unidentified human remains our bureau of justice statistics reported that as of two thousand and four more than half of the nation's medical examiners offices had no policy for retaining records such as x rays d n a or fingerprints on unidentified human remains in addition it is estimated that on any given day there are one hundred thousand active missing persons cases name is the first national system for solving missing persons cases and unidentified dead that was developed by and for those who use it by law enforcement medical examiners corners and the public the creation of name is has provided unparalleled opportunities for true partnerships among these groups especially with the families of the missing and unidentified dead name is engages the public to work alongside state in local agencies to help resolve cases increase public safety and provide resolution for families and for loved ones name us also serves as a central online repository for other missing persons web sites for state clearing houses for contact information legislation and other resources from around the country so now instead of having to search newspapers or call morgues around the country to find information about unidentified persons families and loved ones can turn to name a name us was implemented in three stages in june of two thousand and seven we launched the first database for unidentified dead and then in january of two thousand and nine we completed the second phase for a database on missing persons information in july of last year the third phase of name is became active and that was the cross matching the system now automatically searches for similarities between the unidentified dead cases and the missing person cases every time a new case is published to the system or when a new case is opened the system alerts name escapes managers would potential matches are found so that they can follow up and in just a short time name is has become an extremely valuable tool all fifty states have missing person case reports in amos law enforcement officers and fifty states are registered and medical examiners in forty eight states puerto rico and the district of columbia are also using the system and  already made a difference in people's lives last year name it was used to identify the remains of a man recently found dead as those of a boy that was reported missing in virginia in one thousand nine hundred five another example is a man who disappeared in connecticut last april his aunt entered information about him in amos and the following month a body was found and using the information entered by the on the body was identified as that man who disappeared in a and while the information uncovered by name is unfortunately confirmed death it brings much needed resolution to families and friends now while we are very very proud of what name it has accomplished so far we are all striving every day to make it better and that's why we enthusiastically support this legislation would specifically authorize name as well as lead to substantial improvements and how information is shared between amos and the  are also hopeful that the bill will provide a strong incentive through the proposed grant program for states to provide critical information to n c i c a name and shortly after a cases reported please be assured that the department will continue to expand and improve its efforts to help law enforcement medical examiners corners and the public find missing persons and identify human remains we look forward to working with the subcommittee on billy law and this  thanking you for this opportunity to appear before the committee to discuss to help find the missing billie's law is in the my honor to provide testimony today regarding the f b i s national crime information center and its relationship to the department of justice is national missing and on a dental person system or name both of these systems play a vital role in locating and in a buying missing on a divide persons you know the national crime information center commonly known as  is a computerized database of criminal justice information available to virtually every law enforcement agency nationwide twenty four hours a day three hundred sixty five days a year the status of one nine hundred sixty seven primarily to assist law enforcement in apprehending fugitives locating stolen property the n c i c role has clearly expanded over the last forty two years currently the n c i c database consists of nineteen files comprised of seven property files and twelve person files all these files contain more than ten million records of the twelve person files within the n c i c there are two that are impacted by billy's law one the missing person file into the end on a dan a five person file the missing person file which was created  programs as operated under a shared management concept known as the c just advisory policy board or a p b as we refer to it this board represents the interests of more than seventeen thousand local state federal and tribal law enforcement agencies accessing c just systems throughout the united states through various subcommittees working groups and a voting board to see just a p be unable see just systems users to make recommendations to the f b i director regarding policy and according to one benefits survey conducted by the sieges division an estimated fifty thousand missing persons were located as a direct result of information obtained through the n c i c in a single year throughout its collaborative effort with the a the comparison is performed on a daily basis in generates a list of potential candidates which is then provided to the agency entering or modifying a record and to the agency who may own a record in the n c i c for example in identification was made from those candidates however approximately thirty days later the police department updated their original record with some dental information that information generated additional candidates and ultimately resulted in the positive identification of a missing person in two thousand a base upon on a dental five person information entered by a police department in georgia the n c i c generated an automatic response to the georgia police department and a police department in tennessee identifying a possible match as a result of that notification the georgia and tennessee agencies positively identify the person as a missing person from the state tennessee dating back more than ten years despite the successes the f b i and the sieges apv remain steadfastly committed to further by sharing missing in unadilla five person information in a web based environment however we are also mindful of the rights to privacy and civil liberties which we must preserve as we explore the possibility of sharing law enforcement sensitive in several names working groups and advisory committees and throughout the sieges a p b or through the c d c p b we started working with the national institute of justice in developing an interim process for sharing and data with name although this effort has resulted in several states directly providing data extracts from the n c i c to the name of the f b i and the national institute of justice recognize the deficiencies in effectiveness of this process we are committed to exploring a more reliable and efficient long term solution in closing i would like to thank you mr chairman and members of the subcommittee for bribing the f b i an opportunity to contribute this worthwhile endeavor the f b i looks forward to working with the members of this  committee the national institute of justice and our local state federal and tribal law enforcement partners in furthering the development and operation of name and i look forward your questions and comments thank you thank you very much would like to thank all of our witnesses for  that confidential law enforcement or private information is not accessible i think the legislation addresses the discretion that law enforcement agencies have and one data should be entered into the system i think it's officially addresses and acknowledges that there are some privacy concerns there by allowing to the agencies to basically determine what information you want to share i think that's the beauty of our advisory policy board process through that through that form we were able to that the board is made up of approximately thirty two officials representatives throughout the country that represent the multiple jurisdictions that have law enforcement data and n c i c and as we raise issues today much like what we're talking about today we're able to present those issues and concerns to the board and for lack of a better word that that information out through the to the law enforcement community and get their input back in hopefully develop a standard universal i guess universal standards that we allow them to lie about their law their local laws but also meeting the objectives of what we're trying to do be working with our laboratory division on to see what we will be able to do again the code a system in national d n a system is governed and managed by a different set of standards that our laboratory is actually the owner of if you have an this legislation actually the way that it works now that if we offer free d n a analysis services to persons who enter information about missing persons or to the medical examiners in corners who enter information on unidentified remains that that d n a is uploaded into codice into the missing persons part of codice and then there is an indication in the name  as to whether d n a is available so it's separate from the name of system but the indicators are in the system as to whether d n a is available and if someone is missing could you put in d n a from relatives if you don't have the person so that you could calculate absolutely that's a very important part of this that reference samples be taken from family members if they don't have a d n a sample from the missing person long way toward doing that one of the issues that law enforcement and medical examiner communities right now are a lack of resources or capacity to be able to enter that information into the system by providing grants fun to help them do that will exponentially help provide that information to the name of system and help solve additional cases is there a mechanism to download and make available photographs or other tangible information into the system there is your able to do that through name issue can generate missing persons posters there are photographs where there are available you can put in multiple photographs if you would like  anything we haven't done in the bill that needs to be done actually i commend the work that has been done by congressman poe and congressman murphy on this bill we are very supportive and very excited about authoriz providing funds to help populate the name a system and especially working with our colleagues at the f b i to be able to share more information between ends and name to make it a better system well on our way you all three of you for being here and my friend mr murphy for sponsoring this legislation it seems to me over my thirty years in the justice system the number one concern victims and victims families have is information they want to know what is taking place even sometimes more importantly than what happens to they want to know about the case the information and we are an information society now we have the best deeks in the world right here in united states and appreciate the fact smolinski that you and your family have persevered getting arrested it's awful and you did like they'll say and call your congressman and he responded he's moved this legislation the committee is moving legislation but thanks to chairman scott so the system is working to that extent i think it's a piece of this is a very good piece of legislation have a question for you myself mr murray both are concerned about you said that you had other such families that you have met  tworked with describe the relationship with those families it's a similar situation your relationship with those people i'm on the phone with families three or four different families a day this goes back to when billy first went missing i met my first mother whose son went missing i think it was the networking reaching out on the telephone and learning the process because when my son went missing i didn't know that there was a disconnect between medical examiners and law enforcement i called our medical examiner to see if he knew if i john doe john doe came in and it may be my son and if i knew if you knew that he was missing and he said no so i had to fax i'm reaching out through the internet and getting my own website and with facebook and my space and all the other different sites and telephone calls i met families had very similar situations yet they couldn't reach out they were devastated and some if you have to go out and fight for them i have the quel develop in front of me right now and these are some of the families that i'm working with and each square was dedicated to them and they were able to make the square the way they wanted to i think that having the faces out there helping with the families to give them psychological encouragement and they need help and with name and that is a tremendous help for them even with the psychological they'll be able to work with nemeth and be able to watch their case and if there's something on there they could correct it right away i know it's one family recently i've been working with they thought the d n a was in the system and we checked on it and the d n a was not in the system so we need some kind of centralized you know so the families will be able to breathe a little bit and have some rest as if this could happen to anyone you know if it happened to my thirty one year old son who was two hundred pounds six feet tall and he was the one that we always thought he could defend himself and in this case it did and thank you privacy and victims of crime who disappear i see a difference in how we should treat both of us do you agree with that or disagree with that philosophy now that we should have that information about people who go missing much more readily available to the community and maybe these other issues about offenders and all of that stuff we just have a few a minute left mr morris well well i think you make an interesting point and i think the beauty of name is here is that we have been able to provide information that has not been available typically to the general public we all know that nobody is going to fight as hard or stay up as late into the night looking for missing persons as the families are so being able to make a name is available to the public and provide that unique part of this database has has really been the beauty of this system and i think what makes it different what makes it successful and is unable enabled us to get the body and not only from the law enforcement community because they have benefited very much from the involvement of the public many of our success cases are because families advocates private citizens have stayed up late into the night searching naima said have discovered similarities between missing and and identify dead so i would say that being able to provide that information where we never have been able to do that before has been a huge benefit for this country thank you mr chairman thank you mr quickly mr chairman  my questions were asked and answered but i i too want to thank mr murphy and mr polk for their efforts here in the panel and everyone in this room for their efforts in this extraordinary legislation thank you so much thank you i'd like to thank all of the witnesses for the testimony today members may have additional written questions for to us can be made part of the record we received a letter from the department of justice but h r thirty six ninety five and i without objection were placed in the hearing record record will remain open for one week for the submission of additional material and again ms day would like to thank you