TITLE 18

CRIMES AND PUNISHMENTS

CHAPTER 45

KIDNAPING

18-4510.  Birth records of missing children — State registrar’s duties. 1. Upon notification by a law enforcement agency that a child born in the state is missing or has run away, the state registrar shall flag the child’s birth certificate record in such a manner that whenever a copy of the birth certificate or information concerning the birth record is requested, the state director shall be alerted to the fact that the certificate is that of a missing or runaway child.

2.  In response to any inquiry, the state registrar or any clerk appointed by him or any employee of vital statistics shall not provide a copy of a birth certificate or information concerning the birth record of any missing or runaway child whose birth record has been flagged pursuant to this section, and shall immediately notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction over the investigation of the missing or runaway child. Inquiries shall be handled in the following manner:

(a)  When a copy of the birth certificate of a missing or runaway child whose record has been flagged is requested in person, the employee receiving the request shall immediately notify his supervisor or the state registrar. The person making the request shall complete a form supplying his name, address, telephone number and relationship to the missing or runaway child and the name, address and birth date of the missing or runaway child. The driver’s license of the person making the request, if available, shall be photocopied and returned to him. He shall be informed that the birth certificate will be mailed to him when it is released. The employee shall note the physical description of the person making the request, and, upon that person’s departure from the vital statistics office, the supervisor or state registrar shall immediately notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of the request and provide it with the information obtained pursuant to subsection 2(a) of this section. The state registrar shall retain the form completed by the person making the request.

(b)  When a copy of the birth certificate of a missing or runaway child whose birth record has been flagged is requested in writing, the state registrar shall immediately notify the law enforcement agency having jurisdiction of the request and shall provide a copy of the written request. The state registrar shall retain the original written request.

3.  Upon notification by a law enforcement agency that a missing or runaway child has been returned or when the child reaches his eighteenth birthday, the state registrar shall remove the flag from the child’s birth record.

History:

[18-4510, added 1988, ch. 281, sec. 1, p. 913; am. 1989, ch. 219, sec. 3, p. 534.]