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A Seattle Post-Intelligencer special report on how police here and around the nation fumble missing-person reports, originally published in 10 parts.
Thursday, February 27, 2003 Part 10: Experts list ways to improve system As Washington's official forensic dental adviser, Dr. Gary Bell has helped nurture an obscure state records repository into what one top FBI official called a national role model in the field of identifying the dead. What's more remarkable, the unit he assists has no dedicated funding, limited staffing and no investigative authority. Yet, FBI records show Washington ranks well above most states with large caseloads in obtaining dental records for missing people -- about 13 percent, compared with a national average of about 4 percent.
"We are, without a doubt, the best-kept secret advocates for those that die in anonymity and those that live with wonder and worry," Bell says. The "we" Bell refers to is the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit, a part-time operation with a heavy caseload operated under the Washington State Patrol. With Bell, a volunteer, and two identification technicians on loan part time from the Criminal Identification Division, it is the statewide repository for about 2,000 active missing-person cases. The unit also tries to track all unidentified bodies found in Washington state -- usually about 90 at any given time, involving suicide, murder, accident or death from natural causes. Each is a mystery unsolved by local police and coroners. All of the cases matter, Bell says, and many haunt him: The body of teenage girl found near a missile silo in Bothell in 1986. "Multicolored hair, nice teeth," he says. "Somebody is missing their daughter." The body of young male pulled out of Lake Stickney in south Snohomish County. "Bullet hole through his head. Nice big crowns" on his teeth. They are haunting, Bell says, because it would be easy to identify these remains if the proper records could be found -- records likely stored away in the office of a dentist who has no idea that a patient has died. Instead, the dead remain known only by number. And without names of victims, about 50 homicide cases are stalled. "We've got the tools, and we've proved that the system works," Bell says. "But missing persons just aren't given much attention." Problems resurfaceAlthough Washington has long been considered a model for handling missing-person cases, identifying the dead and tracking serial killers, decades-old problems continue to resurface. In a yearlong investigation, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer found that missing-person reports are often ignored and police often place little emphasis on such investigations. Those who need help may never get it, the anonymous dead remain unidentified and killers get away with murder. Money could fix some of the problems -- especially the flawed databases and understaffed units that track missing-person cases. But experts say changing the attitudes of police -- overcoming indifference, bias and territorialism -- is just as important as adequate funding. The P-I asked experts nationwide to suggest ways to improve missing-person investigations, methods for identifying the dead and the search for killers. Here's what they said: TRAINING AND INVESTIGATIONS Solution: Add adults to the federal law that bars waiting periods for accepting missing-person reports about children and requires police to immediately enter them into state and national databases. Civil libertarians may see the reports as an infringement on privacy rights -- it's not against the law for an adult to go missing -- but the benefits of quick intervention when there's a crime could outweigh those concerns. Although the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in Alexandria, Va., has been the federal resource center for missing children since 1984, there was no equivalent for adults until 2001. Congress provided $1.6 million to help finance an adult resource component at the nation's Missing Children's Organization and Center for Missing Adults. Legislation for further funding is pending. Solution: The Washington State Patrol created a standard report form in 1995, but few local police departments use it. If they did, information needed to verify identity, including physical descriptions and the name of a missing person's dentist, would be more likely to be on file months or years later, if a body is found. Problem: Reports get little attention by officers and civilians. Solution: Missing-person investigations should be a long-term specialty assignment housed in a department's homicide unit so that cases quickly attract expertise of major crime investigators. Only a few of the nation's largest police forces can afford to have detectives screen missing-person cases. Beat cops, dispatchers and clerks are often the first authorities to learn of a disappearance, but few have specialized training to recognize clues that a missing person might be a crime victim or could be in need of immediate help. Even departments that have detectives look at the reports usually assign officers with limited training who are reassigned, promoted or retire before they gain needed expertise. Solution: Better training could increase compliance, but the law needs teeth. Police departments either don't know about or routinely ignore state and federal laws that require them to seek dental or medical records for missing people to help identify anonymous bodies. In Washington state, police have failed to check for or obtain such records in 60 percent of all long-term cases. Theoretically, agencies that fail to follow up on cases can only be penalized by purging cases from tracking systems, but removal of valid records would be counterproductive to investigations. Yet, many experts said they are unsure exactly how police should be penalized. TECHNOLOGY, SYSTEMS, POLICE COMPLIANCE Solution: More than 94,000 agencies nationwide can access the FBI's National Crime Information Center computer to help link missing persons to the unnamed dead, but the system is plagued by rigid and unreliable search capabilities. A simplified and reliable system for dental comparisons is to be implemented by the end of this year, but each state must still modify their systems to conform to it. Other improvements -- including new forms that will tell whether DNA samples are available, and where they're located -- also are scheduled. But continued vigilance is needed to ensure improvements happen. Some argue that NCIC should be replaced with a modern, Web-based system that medical examiners and coroners can access. Solution: Every two years, federal auditors check how well local police use NCIC to check for everything from fugitives to files about missing people. But the auditors check information already in the system only to see whether entries are complete and whether agencies remove cases after they are solved. They don't ask why a case has been purged to determine whether it should have been. The P-I found that more than 100 long-term missing-person reports filed in Washington state were never added to the system, despite signs of possible foul play, and that many cases are improperly deleted. The audits also are limited. They don't look at the NCIC unidentified-persons file, which is a repository of information about 4,000 unidentified dead people, to see whether they are accurate and complete. Solution: All states now feed DNA information to an FBI national database used for criminal investigations, but an 18-month-old counterpart for missing people and the unidentified dead is not widely used. Only a handful of states have initiated missing-person DNA systems, and there is no federal law requiring police to seek DNA samples for missing-person cases, limiting the fledgling system's effectiveness. Solution: In Washington, the Homicide Investigation Tracking System tries to track patterns in violent crime and suspicious disappearances. The FBI's Violent Criminal Apprehension Program does the same, on a national level. But local police are not required to supply HITS with reports, and few states require reporting to the FBI database. Without the information, experts miss cases that can keep them blind to patterns in abductions, murders and other crimes. Some experts favor mandatory reporting. Participation in the FBI program is low, although some states -- New York, for example -- recently passed legislation making it mandatory. "I think you're going to see a lot more states moving toward mandatory reporting . . . to make us more effective," said Kevin Crawford, a ViCAP supervisor. Problem: Privacy concerns prevent agencies from sharing information. Solution: The state Department of Corrections, which houses 15,500 prisoners, has dental and medical records from inmate examinations. The Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit would like to add them to its database after an inmate is released. The logic is simple: People on the fringes of society often die anonymous deaths. Inmate records no longer needed by Corrections could help identify them. Gail Kreiger, a DOC health services manager, said privacy laws prohibit such an information exchange. Legislation at both the state and federal level would be required, she said. MONEY: Solution: Better funding is needed for programs such as the Missing and Unidentified Persons Unit and HITS. Neither have a dedicated funding source, and neither gets much attention in the never-ending battle for a share of the state general fund. The Washington State Patrol picks up the slack for the missing-person unit, for example, but last year spent just $52,600 on it, mostly to pay two WSP technicians on loan from another division. Only $4,800 was for "goods and services" needed to maintain unit operations. Dr. Gary Bell, the unit's volunteer dentist, has sometimes been forced to supplement the work himself -- even buying a fax machine to receive records from local police and coroners. HELP FOR FAMILIES Solution: A state panel has talked about starting a toll-free public hotline for people wanting to file missing-person reports who've been rejected by local police. The idea didn't go beyond discussions, as state officials said more money and a mandate from the Legislature was needed to run the hot line. Washington's missing children's clearinghouse operates a toll-free line, but only for use in reporting missing kids. Without funding and a state law, a comparable state hot line for adults remains unlikely. Solution: Some experts suggest citizens who report someone missing should automatically get a standardized information sheet from police telling them what they can do to help. Police often fail to ask families where they can find dental or medical records for missing people, but if families knew the information is needed, they often would provide it. Family & Friends of Violent Crime Victims, a non-profit group based in the Seattle area, has developed informational pamphlets for families of missing persons, but there is no standard information offered by law enforcement agencies. Citizens, schools and social services programs can also work actively to spread awareness on missing-person issues, said Wayne Lord, head of the FBI's Child Abduction-Serial Killer Investigative Resource Center. "What I'd like to see is more steps taken toward prevention," he said. "That means better cooperation among law enforcement, social service programs, parents and schools. . . . Teaching people the signs of how and why people disappear or runaway." Solution: Lobbying by friends and families of missing people can prompt local, state and national reform. It was a father's perseverance that led to the watershed Missing Children's Act of 1982. After his son's abduction and murder, John Walsh, now host of TV's America's Most Wanted, pushed for reform -- and got it with the federal law that called for stricter reporting, an enhanced FBI database and the establishment of a national missing children's clearinghouse. The same can happen for adults, experts say, if families and friends insist."If the families of the missing got together and became a significant lobby, maybe something would be done," said Bell, the forensic dentist. "But . . . right now, they just don't have a voice." P-I reporter Lise Olsen contributed to this report. INSIDE SEATTLEPI.COM
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