WCID · What You Can Do

Make the Missing Count

One reason people vanish from the system: police usually aren’t required to log them. That’s a law your state can change — and it takes no side on any single case.

NamUs is the national database for missing and unidentified people — the system investigators, medical examiners, and families search across state lines. Here’s the catch most people don’t know: entering a case is voluntary for police in most of the country. Only 17 states require it. So thousands of cases are never logged at all, which is part of why some people — disproportionately Black women, Indigenous women, and others the press already overlooks — drop out of the system before anyone is looking.

This is a data law, not a verdict on anyone’s death. Fixing it helps every missing person, whatever happened to them.

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Ohio — the FIND Act (HB 217). Would require police to enter a missing-person report into NamUs if the person isn’t found in 30 days. Passed the Ohio House 95–0 and is now in the state Senate — the stage where calls land. (If you’re in Ohio, the checker above links you straight to your legislator.)

Federal — the BADGES for Native Communities Act (H.R. 1010). Expands tribal access to NamUs and the federal crime database to close the MMIWG data gap. The Senate already passed it unanimously; the House is sitting on it. Ask your representative to move it — Capitol switchboard 202-224-3121, or find your representative.

The “Not One More” report. The federal Not Invisible Act Commission’s findings on missing and murdered Native people were removed from the Justice Department’s website in 2025; members of Congress are pushing to restore them. Worth a mention to your representative on the same call.

We’re not telling you what happened in any case. We’re pointing at a fixable gap in the system that’s supposed to find people. Sources: NamUs FAQ (the 17-state count), Ohio HB 217, H.R. 1010.