Relates to authorizing the office of children and family services to release reports and records to certain law enforcement officials in the event of a kidnapping

Summary of provisions

Section 1 amends the social services law by adding a new section 424-c providing the release of records upon the receipt of a reported kidnapping to law enforcement agencies. Section 2 provides the effective date.

Justification

During the investigation of an alleged kidnapping, in order for law enforcement officials to access child-protective records, the investigating officer must report the alleged kidnapping to the state's child abuse hotline. Once reported, child protective services may release certain records to law enforcement. However, the agency may deny such a request if they deem the request unsubstantiated. The social services law currently requires investigating agents demonstrate necessity and provide evidence that it is reasonable to believe that the subject of their investigation is the subject of a specific report. The law states, only where the information is "necessary to conduct a criminal investigation of criminal prosecution of a person, (and) there is reasonable cause to believe that such person is the subject of a report, and that it is reasonable to believe that due to the nature of the crime under investigation or prosecution, such person is the subject of a report, and that it is reasonable to believe that due to that nature of the crime under investigation or prosecution, such records may be related to the criminal investigation or prosecution."

The current statutory scheme provides for tremendous agency discretion and prevents law enforcement officials from thoroughly investigating a report of kidnapping. An investigator may not have identified a specific person of interest in a missing child case, but information contained in that child's protective services records may help to identify a suspect. At particular issue is the recent case of five-year-old Kenneth White who was reported missing by his cousin but was actually found dead, buried under the snow across the road from his family's home. Although police officials were suspicious of the cousin's kidnapping claim, they were stopped from accessing Kenneth's child protective records. Those records could have provided the investigators with additional persons of interest but the current law prevents the release of these records unless there is an identifiable person of interest and corresponding probable cause that the person of interest is also the subject of the record. Instead the police were forced to siphon through contradictory statements made by other family members, thus prolonging their search. Upon Kenneth's discovery,

Tiffany VanAlstyne, Kenneth's cousin allegedly confessed to attacking the boy and has since been arraigned.

Given the exigent circumstances surrounding a report of kidnapping, law enforcement access to child protective service records is essential. These documents provide invaluable information related to the child's situation and may lead to the child's prompt discovery. Law enforcement officials are prevented from fully executing kidnapping investigations because the statute currently provides for significant agency discretion and requires that a person of interest also be the subject of a child-protective service report in order for law enforcement to access such information. Law enforcement must not be forestalled in their investigations of missing children. This bill would require the Office of Children and Family Services to provide protective service records to law enforcement officials for the purposes of the investigating a missing child report. It is the responsibility of the legislature to provide the necessary access of information to these officials in order to successfully administer their searches. For the aforementioned reasons this legislation should be enacted immediately.

Prior legislative history

New bill.

Fiscal implication

None.

Effective date

This act shall take effect immediately.