The Kansas House passed a bill calling for cooperation between cell phone provider companies with law enforcement in cases of missing persons.
The bill, known as "Kelsey's Law" was inspired by the 2007 kidnapping and murder in Johnson County, Kansas of 18-year-old Kelsey Smith.
It passed with a 118-1 vote Friday and went to the Senate.
The bill requires that cell phone companies must release caller location information promptly to police when requested. Cell phone signals, known as pings, can be used to track a phone's location.
From the Kansas City Star:
Greg and Missey Smith spent three agonizing days searching for their daughter Kelsey before their cell-phone company agreed to provide data showing where her phone had traveled.
The next day, 45 minutes after getting precise information from Verizon Wireless, police used it to find Kelsey Smith’s body near Longview Lake where her killer, Edwin R. Hall, left her body after he abducted, raped and strangled the 18-year-old Overland Park woman in June 2007.
“To have her lay out there for four days and for us to not know where she was, it’s just inexcusable,” Greg Smith told Kansas lawmakers Monday. “It’s time to change that so other families don’t have to go through this.”
The Smiths don’t blame Verizon for their daughter’s death, but they do hold the company responsible for the delay in finding her body. Now they want lawmakers to pass legislation requiring cell-phone companies to provide any information they have to law enforcement in an emergency.
The Smiths say the change could help police find kidnapping victims, runaways or lost and injured people before it’s too late.
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Amber Leeann Dubois Missing In San Diego County
There is currently a case of missing Amber Leeann Dubois in San Diego County, Calfornia who became missing on February 13 while walking to school. She was using her cell phone just prior to her disappearance. Hopefully, law enforcement has obtained the records of Amber's cell phone pings and are using them to try to pinpoint her whereabouts.
If you have any information on Amber Leeann Dubois, please go to the website that has been set up: Amber Leeann Dubois
Please help if you know anything by calling the Escondido Police Department (Detective Estrada, 760 839-4758) Thank you.
Here's the description of Amber Leeann Dubois:
Ht: 5'5"
Wt: 130
Short medium brown hair - bright blue eyes.
Date of Birth: 10/25/1994
Last seen wearing black pants, black hoodie and black sneakers
Last seen 7:10am Feb. 13, 2009 on North Broadway in Escondido, CA - walking toward Escondido HS (believed to have been on west side of street)
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