OKLAHOMA CITY — The state House of Representatives’ Public Safety Committee approved three bills Thursday targeted at addressing Oklahoma’s rate of missing and murdered Indigenous people.
Authored by Rep. Daniel Pae (R-Lawton), House Bill 2848 would require the Council on Law Enforcement Education and Training to add cultural sensitivity training and at least one hour of instruction on the issues connected to the missing and murdered Indigenous people to its basic training curriculum for law enforcement certification.
“I want to thank all the folks who’ve been regularly coming up to the Capitol to advocate and raise awareness about missing and murdered Indigenous women,” Pae said. “I know many of them spoke to you (committee members) on Monday.”
Two related measures from Rep. Merelyn Bell (D-Norman), House Bill 3892 and House Bill 3893, also passed out of committee. The former would require law enforcement to compile more information in missing children cases.
The latter would authorize the Oklahoma Department of Education to compile and maintain a digital repository of school photos that would be made available to state and local law enforcement agencies when a child is reported missing.
“When minutes and seconds count...it would be wonderful for law enforcement agencies to be able to reach out to one centralized location to get that photograph instead of contacting each school district individually,” Bell said.
Meanwhile, a bill previously scheduled to be heard has reappeared on the Judiciary Committee’s agenda.
House Bill 3345, also known as Ida’s Law, would create a liaison’s office within the Oklahoma State Bureau of Investigations to work with tribal communities and law enforcement, the Oklahoma Medical Examiner’s Office and the Office of the Secretary of Native American Affairs on cases of missing and murdered Indigenous people. The bill also specifically calls for the liaison’s office to be staffed by a missing person specialist who has extensive experience working in and with tribal communities.
The bill is named in honor of Ida Beard, a citizen of the Cheyenne and Arapaho Tribes. Beard disappeared from her El Reno neighborhood in 2015 and to date, is still missing.
Laid over at the Feb. 11 Judiciary Committee meeting without comment or explanation, the measure is now scheduled to be considered Tuesday afternoon according to a public Facebook post from its author, Rep. Mickey Dollens (D-Oklahoma City).
As of noon Friday, the Judiciary Committee’s meeting notice has not been posted.