Unanimous Approval Expected for NPRM on Missing Persons EAS Code

An FCC draft NPRM proposing an emergency alert system code for missing adults is headed for unanimous approval with few changes at the commissioners' open meeting Thursday, agency and industry officials said (see 2402210066). The proposed Missing and Endangered Persons code (MEP) alert would be used for missing people older than 17 with special needs and circumstances or who are endangered, abducted or kidnapped. It is intended to fill a gap between Amber Alerts used for missing children and seniors' Silver Alerts. MEP would respond to the rising problem of missing and murdered indigenous people, said the draft NPRM. The item has drawn little ex parte activity since last month's circulation.

“We need a standardized system that's designed to streamline communication and coordination among law enforcement agencies and emergency responders and the public,” when adults go missing, said Loris Taylor, CEO of Native Public Media, a group that helps indigenous groups obtain broadcast licenses and has advocated for the MEP code. “Right now, it is a jurisdictional quagmire out there,” Taylor said.

The draft item frames the MEP code as furthering existing initiatives to create a quick, coordinated response to missing adults in general and missing indigenous people in particular. One initiative is the 2018 Ashanti Alert Act, which authorized the U.S. attorney general to create a nationwide network that facilitates coordination and search efforts for missing adults. The law and the Ashanti Alerts it calls for are named for a 19-year-old woman who was abducted and killed in 2017. Proposals in the NPRM would allow Ashanti Alerts to be transmitted over EAS, the draft item said.

The draft NPRM also cites laws from 2020, Savanna’s Act and the Not Invisible Act, which call for law enforcement coordination in “addressing violent crimes against American Indians and Alaska Natives.” Savanna’s Act is named for a 22-year-old Spirit Lake Nation pregnant woman whose neighbor abducted and murdered her.

“We seek to advance the important public policy objective of encouraging states, territories, and Tribal communities to develop or enhance existing missing and endangered person and Ashanti Alert plans to optimize regional and nationwide search efforts,” the draft item said. “We also seek to facilitate integration of those local plans” into DOJ's National Ashanti Alert Network.

The draft item seeks comment on creation of the MEP code, how existing individual state, local, tribal and territorial alert systems for missing adults are performing, and whether a new EAS code would benefit those efforts. “Has the lack of a dedicated EAS event code impeded the adoption of missing and endangered person or Ashanti Alert plans?” the draft NPRM asks.

As with Amber Alerts, MEP code use would be voluntary, the draft item said. “What are the benefits of having one event code for all missing and endangered person events that do not meet the criteria of an AMBER alert vis a vis one more limited in scope?” the NPRM asks. It also seeks comment on protecting the personal information and civil liberties of missing adults, and the time frame for implementing a proposed MEP code.

If a MEP code is created, most existing EAS equipment could likely be configured to use it with a software update, said Harold Price, president of Sage Alerting. That is less expensive for broadcasters than a hardware upgrade, but would likely require consultation with engineers, he said. That’s not a big problem for broadcasters with on-site engineers, but many smaller stations use outside consultants. “I just talked to one guy this morning who says his engineer is an eight-hour drive away,” Price said.

The draft item estimates that the labor for downloading the code and updating the software wouldn’t exceed five hours for each EAS participant, and tentatively concludes that the total implementation costs for the new code would be “approximately $12 million.”