KNOXVILLE — Officials with Knox County law enforcement hosted a presentation Monday afternoon to introduce their involvement with the National Missing and Unidentified System (NAMUS), in which they are currently receiving training in conjunction with Nashville law enforcement officials.
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The program, which is funded by the National Institute of Justice and managed by the University of North Texas’ Health Science Center, was described by its representatives as “filling the nation’s need for a unified, online free database system for the unidentified remains and missing person’s records.
NAMUS can automatically search a missing person’s data against an unidentified person’s data. Also, cases that have certain similarities are presented to investigators allowing for side-by-side comparisons and exclusions to be performed.
Medical examiners, coroners, victim’s advocates and the public can even get in on the action, as those who are interested in solving missing persons cases, as well as cold cases, can share information to help solve them.
“This has been an important initiative since 2009,” said Det. Chad Holman, a detective with the Nashville Police Department who led the presentation at the City-County Building in downtown Knoxville. “(My colleague) and I attended the NAMUS Academy in Atlanta and became part of the NAMUS team. We wanted to present these facts from a law enforcement prospective.”
997 Tennesseans missing
Holman shared that there have been 44,386 cases under the age of 18, 40,220 cases over the age of 18, and 675 under the age of 7. There were approximately 43,448 cases where someone has been reported missing.
The states of California, Texas, Pennsylvania, Michigan, New York and Florida were reported to be among the top six and accounted for approximately 45 percent of all missing persons.
In Tennessee, the National Crime Information Center (NCIC) reported 997 missing persons, and 118 missing within the NAMUS.
The NCIC reported 63 unidentified descendents, while NAMUS reported 88.
“It’s our job to catch these numbers up,” Holman said.
He added that as of 2004, there have been 13,500 sets of human remains in coroner’s offices across the nation. Of the nearly 4,400 cases that occur every year, only one-third are actually identified.
‘Billy’s Law’
Amy Dobbs, a criminal analyst in the Knox County Sheriff’s Office Cold Case Unit, discussed the concept of “Billy’s Law,” which is awaiting passage in Congress.
If passed, the bill would provide federal funding for law enforcement agencies in missing person’s cases. It would also mandate the linkage of the NCIC database with the NAMUS database with the purpose of facilitating data.
“It will be huge for agencies nationwide,” Dobbs said. “It will help train law enforcement and their personnel to use the NAMUS database, and eliminate the need to look for people simultaneously.”
Holman added that with the NAMUS system, there would be no minimum time requirement to identify missing persons.
“NAMUS should be looking for long-term missing persons cases,” Holman said. “(Agencies) don’t have time every day to establish cases. They have to establish protocols at the discretion of law enforcement.”
Blount County Sheriff’s Office spokeswoman Marian O’Briant said her department was not familiar with the NAMUS system, and that they conduct their missing persons’ cases through the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.
