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Governor Jay Inslee, a Democrat, on Thursday signed the bill,
which calls on the Washington State Patrol to create the alert
system.
That system will include a hotline the public can call to report
a missing indigenous person. That information would quickly be
sent to law enforcement agencies throughout the state, along
with the public via social media, news outlets and electronic
signs along highways, similar to the national Amber alert system
for abducted children.
State studies show Native people, especially women and girls,
represent a disproportionately large number of missing and
murdered cases relative to the size of their population, but
receive scant attention from law enforcement or media. Native
American activists say this disparity is the result of
deep-rooted racism.
Researchers have found there is a national data crisis when it
comes to cases involving missing and murdered indigenous people,
with law enforcement agencies across the country having little
information about the cases.
Washington state representative Debra Lekanoff, a Democrat and
Native American, said during the bill signing ceremony that the
alert system will allow the public to hear "the unheard screams"
of indigenous women who go missing.
"I'm proud to say that the missing and murdered indigenous
women's and peoples' alert system came from the voices of our
Native American leaders," she said. "Missing and murdered
indigenous women and people is not just an Indian issue, it's
not just an Indian responsibility."
(Reporting by Brad Brooks in Lubbock, Texas; Editing by Aurora
Ellis)
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