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AB-2944 Murdered or missing indigenous persons.(2023-2024)

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Date Published: 02/16/2024 02:00 PM
AB2944:v99#DOCUMENT


CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE— 2023–2024 REGULAR SESSION

Assembly Bill
No. 2944

Introduced by Assembly Member Waldron

February 16, 2024

An act to add Section 14217 to the Penal Code, relating to murdered or missing persons.


LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST


AB 2944, as introduced, Waldron. Murdered or missing indigenous persons.
Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish and maintain the Violent Crime Information Center to assist in the identification and the apprehension of persons responsible for specific violent crimes and for the disappearance and exploitation of persons, particularly children and dependent adults. Existing law requires the Attorney General to establish within the center and to maintain an online automated computer system designed to effect an immediate law enforcement response to reports of missing persons, and requires the center to make information authorized for dissemination that is contained in law enforcement reports regarding missing or unidentified persons accessible to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System.
Existing law establishes the Rural Indian Crime Prevention Program, a program of financial and technical assistance for local law enforcement, within the Office of Emergency Services, to target the relationship between law enforcement and Indigenous communities to encourage and strengthen cooperative efforts and to implement crime suppression and prevention programs.
This bill would authorize the Governor to appoint a Red Ribbon Panel to address the murdered or missing indigenous persons (MMIP) crisis, consisting of specified members. The bill would require the panel to produce and submit, by January 1, 2026, a study with recommendations to address the MMIP crisis to tribes, California’s federal elected officials, the Legislature, counties, cities, and federal, tribal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies. The bill would make related findings and declarations.
Vote: MAJORITY   Appropriation: NO   Fiscal Committee: YES   Local Program: NO  

The people of the State of California do enact as follows:


SECTION 1.

 The Legislature finds and declares all of the following:
(a) California is home to more Indigenous or Native American people than any other state in the country.
(b) California has the fifth largest caseload of missing and murdered indigenous women and people among all states in the country.
(c) In the United States:
(1) Indigenous women go missing and are murdered at rates higher than any other ethnic group.
(2) More than four in five indigenous women have experienced violence in their lifetime and more than one in three have in the last year.
(3) Indigenous women are 2.5 times more likely to experience sexual assault.
(4) Nearly one-half of all indigenous women have been raped, beaten, or stalked by an intimate partner.
(5) Homicide is the third leading cause of death for indigenous women and girls.
(6) Nearly all indigenous women—97 percent—who reported experiencing some form of violence in their lifetimes reported at least one perpetrator who was of a different race.
(7) Rates of violent victimization for both males and females are higher among Indigenous or Native American people than for any other race.
(8) Indigenous men and boys are two times more likely than the non-Native American population to die from homicide.
(9) Trafficking of indigenous people rose steadily between 2010 and 2019. The most common form of reported trafficking of indigenous people is sex trafficking, and of the overall reported cases, nearly 39 percent are minors.
(10) One in 130 indigenous children are likely to go missing each year.
(11) LGBTQ+ Native Americans and people who identify as “two-spirit” people within tribal communities are also often the targets of violence.

SEC. 2.

 Section 14217 is added to the Penal Code, to read:

14217.
 (a) The Governor may appoint a Red Ribbon Panel to address the murdered or missing indigenous persons (MMIP) crisis, consisting of the following members:
(1) Four tribal leaders from northern California.
(2) Four tribal leaders from central California.
(3) Four tribal leaders from southern California.
(4) A chair of the panel, who shall be selected from and by the 12 tribal leaders in paragraphs (1), (2), and (3).
(5) The Tribal Affairs Secretary.
(6) A representative from the Department of the California Highway Patrol.
(7) A representative from the State Department of Social Services.
(8) A representative from the Office of Emergency Services.
(9) A representative from the State Department of Public Health.
(10) A representative from the Attorney General’s office.
(11) The Superintendent of Public Instruction.
(12) Three representatives of counties.
(13) Three representatives of cities.
(14) A representative of federal law enforcement agencies.
(15) A representative of tribal law enforcement agencies.
(16) A representative of county law enforcement agencies.
(17) A representative of city law enforcement agencies.
(18) A Senator.
(19) A Member of the Assembly.
(20) Two representatives from tribal courts.
(21) Three victims’ rights advocates.
(22) A representative from the Bureau of Indian Affairs.
(b) The panel shall produce and submit, by January 1, 2026, a study with recommendations to address the MMIP crisis to tribes, California’s federal elected officials, the Legislature, counties, cities, and federal, tribal, state, county, and local law enforcement agencies.