Associated Press
May 22, 2007
HARTFORD, Conn. -- Police departments statewide would have to change the way they handle missing persons cases under a bill that the House of Representatives approved unanimously Tuesday.
The legislation, which now heads to the Senate, requires the state's Police Officer Standards and Training Council to develop a policy by Jan. 1, 2008, on how municipal departments should handle such cases.
The policy would include guidelines for accepting reports, the kind of information police must collect, and what details police should provide to anyone reporting a missing person and to the person's relatives.
The bill was spurred by Waterbury resident Janice Smolinski, whose 31-year-old son Billy disappeared in 2004.
Police made her family wait three days to report his disappearance, and authorities later lost or misplaced DNA samples - including Billy Smolinski's razor shavings - three times, Janice Smolinski said.
The family organized search parties and had to pressure police to fingerprint Billy Smolinski's truck, his mother said.
The legislation, which the House approved 148-0, is part of a national grass-roots effort to lobby for more consistent laws for handling missing adult cases.
"No one should have to go through what the Smolinski family went through," said Rep. Vickie Nardello, D-Prospect.
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