Phylicia Barnes could never have known that she would play an instrumental part in changing Maryland legislature when she disappeared from her sister’s northwest Baltimore home in 2010. Now, more than a year later, the teen’s death has helped clear the way for an important vote facing the Maryland General Assembly, one that could change how quickly missing person cases are initiated and investigated.
The proposed bill, House Bill 1120 (HB1120), which has been coined “Phylicia’s Law,” will automatically make a child “critically missing” if they are 17 years of age or younger. Currently, the law will only consider a minor missing within the first 24 hours of disappearance if they are 14 or younger.
“The intent of the bill is to call for an immediate action plan. Raising the age is critical because there is a gap in the law right now,” said Del. Jill P. Carter, who introduced the bill and worked tirelessly with law enforcement to come up with a sound plan that worked for everyone involved. “If a person is a minor and we in society don’t deem them capable of taking care of themselves, making adult decisions, and having adult responsibility- if they are missing, whether they are abducted or ran away, we need to step up our efforts to find them.”
The Maryland House Judiciary Committee heard testimony last week from Barnes’ family, law enforcement, and missing person advocates as to what changes need to take place. The new law will mandate that action be taken within the first 12 hours of a report for a missing child, eliminating the alleged 24-hour wait period that police officials deny but families of missing children frequently substantiate. The law also requires that police immediately call to action local and state volunteer search organizations to help with efforts to locate missing children.
“At some point we’ve got to send a signal to politicians, predators, police and everyone else that it’s not going to be business as usual anymore. All children are valuable and that includes African American children,” said Don L. Rondeau, who helped search for the child and push law makers to action on behalf of Phylicia Barnes and her family.
In December 2010, Barnes was visiting family in Baltimore for the Christmas holiday. After missing for nearly four months, the Monroe, North Carolina teen’s naked body was pulled from the Susquehanna River by the Conowingo Dam. No one has been charged in the case.
After seeing little being done by authorities in the way of creating a more effective plan to first, prevent, and then solve cases of missing children, Rondeau became personally involved in the case and began using knowledge from his 25-year career of tracking down terrorists to help. Rondeau continued to build alliances and push for the bill even after news of Barnes death because he grew tired of police departments without enough manpower to search for missing children, when hundreds of citizens are waiting for the call to help through volunteer agencies.
“People need to understand that if they do their jobs as an elected official, as an officer, as a citizen- other people will step in. We may step on toes, do and say things the wrong way- but our focus will be squarely on getting justice for that kid,” said Rondeau who, with the help of other missing persons advocates, helped call attention to the need for a change in the law.
The National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, reports that nearly 800,000 children go missing nationwide annually, roughly 2,000 reports of missing children every single day. According to Maryland State Police, 13,500 children go missing in Maryland every year. Of those cases, 12,000 are found, however, on any given day there are approximately 1,500-2,000 open cases across the state.
If passed, the bill will take effect Oct. 1. To read HB 1120, visit http://mlis.state.md.us/2012rs/bills/hb/hb1120f.pdf
